Comparison of Afghanistan’s Construction and Engineering Contract with International Contracts of FIDIC RED BOOK (2017) and NEC4—ECC

Abstract

Construction and engineering contracts are the core documents used to set out contractual relations, rights and obligations of parties, payment systems, communication lines, and dispute avoidance/resolution procedures in construction and engineering projects. Thus the importance of these documents is obvious. In this study, the Standard Bidding Document (SBD) for the Procurement of Small Works (PSWs) of the Government of Afghanistan (which’s the approximate cost is up to AFN 500 million) is chosen. It is to be compared with the Conditions of Contract for Construction—FIDIC RED BOOK—2nd Edition (2017) and New Engineering Contracts (NEC4) Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC) 4th Edition (2017). This study was conducted using different research papers, theses and books, which were relevant to the research, and by deep study of the above three mentioned types of documents of contracts. After that, the comparison of Afghanistan’s SBD for the PSWs with the FIDIC RED BOOK (2017) and NEC4—ECC (2017) in different parts with each other was carried out. After this comparison, the achieved results show that Afghanistan’s SBD for the PSWs has shortcomings, lack of some essential clauses and/or sub-clauses, insufficient information in some clauses which may lead to disputes, errors and/or mistakes in naming of some clauses, lack of flexibility, and unbalanced risk-sharing. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.