by Tiongho Poh

Created on: October 06, 2008   Last Updated: November 21, 2008

Calculate the total number of days you need to have the work done, and the number of people you need in the team. For South-East Asian country, it is sensible to add one additional day for project which requires 30 days to complete or more. This is for the rainy days. If your project needs 12 months to complete, add another 12 days, unless there is really no choice.

In your written contract agreement with the subcontractor, make it in writing that all technicians in your team must be certified ones and that should you remove any one of them, the subcontractor must be able to send a replacement by the following day. Unless this clause is included, you cannot complete your project on time, and without rework because when you sack a certain bad apple, the subcontractor will not send in a replacement. It is your project that will be delayed, not his. His employee will be working at other places by the next morning. It is also common in this part of the world that contractors show you a list of qualified technicians in your office. But those who turn up to work are different from the ones listed in the agreement.

For example, you have a job going on board a rig. The rig is leaving in three days, and your welders are caught smoking in no-smoking area on the rig. The superintendent catches them and kicks them out of the rig. You will not complete the job on time and the subcontractor will be laughing at you. You pay the compensation, not him. Verbal agreements are legal in some countries. Never accept an agreement verbally. You stand to lose, not the subcontractor.

Always have three subcontractors to quote for your project. It is the only way to find the best offer. It is also a good way to tell the contractors that they need to be cost effective. Make sure all the three quotations that come in are genuine ones, say, from Mr Abdul, Mr. Baskaran and Mr. Charlie. It is common for a corrupt contractor to quote a project at exceptionally high fee, and he can still tell the other two contractors to quote very much higher than him. The three contractors take turn to suck money out of your company.

The normal working hours must be adhered to. You cannot say because the lump sum has been paid and therefore the subcontractor's crew can start work or stop work as they wish. If this is the case, the crew can come in to work at 1.00 pm and stop work at 9.00 pm. Won't this schedule upset you project engineer or team leader's routine?

Make sure that whatever job you want to proceed

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