Assuring project quality: the importance of enhancing contract documents

This paper evaluates the ability of two selected Contract Documents presently used in the Sri Lankan construction industry, namely Conditions of Contracts and Specifications, to assure project quality. The evaluation is based on five fundamental concepts that are common to both quality and project management. The results show that the ICTAD Conditions of Contract need to be enhanced by adding new clauses to assure quality which is a critical component to the successful management of construction projects; particularly, a requirement to institute a quality assurance system for the project in accordance with ISO seems to be the most appropriate for this purpose. The document could be further enhanced to incorporate other requirements such as health and safety and environmental protection as well. It is also found, based on recent studies, that the Specifications used in the industry should be improved to assure construction quality. The areas that need significant improvement according to contractors include 7 materials and 12 work items in the document; eventually, however, the entire document should be revised in the light of changes in technology and materials used for construction work over the last several years.