03.3
Taking over, and what was waived to achieve it
Were the contractual conditions for taking over actually met, and where they were not, who agreed to proceed and on what record?
What goes wrong without it
Completion dates are visible, politically weighted and reported upwards. Information conditions are none of those things. When the two conflict, the information condition gives way, usually through a mechanism that is entirely legitimate and entirely undocumented in its consequence. The waiver is granted to protect a date and the cost of it appears years later in a different budget.
What to examine
- Read the taking-over certificate against the conditions in the contract. List what was outstanding at the date of issue.
- For each outstanding item, find who accepted it and what was recorded about the consequence.
- Check whether the Engineer issued the Notice of No-objection on the as-built records and the manuals, where the contract requires it.
- Establish whether any route to deemed taking over was relied on, and if so whether the information obligations were satisfied by another means.
Required by
- FIDIC Conditions of Contract, 2017 edition, Sub-Clause 10.1, taking over the works, and Sub-Clause 10.3, interference with tests on completion.
- ISO 21502:2020, Clause 6, covering project closure and transition.
In the asset lifecycle method
The steps of the two methods that this domain examines.