Abstract:
For government construction projects, the owners are government sectors and most of contractors are private agencies. These parties are governed by the standard government construction contract, which is annexed to the procurement regulations of the Prime Ministers office, 1992. Such contract contains extension of time provision, which causes many disputes between parties in the practical implementations. Therefore this research aims to analyze the deficiencies of such contract regarding extension of time provision and propose guidelines of improvements for further comprehensiveness and clarifications of the provision. The methodology includes studying such contract and related dispute documents. Such documents are collected from 1) the comptroller generals department 2) the attorney general and 3) the administrative court. The analyzing shows the deficiencies of contractual conditions which cause the problems between parties. General conditions of 6 well known international standard construction contracts, which are FIDIC (1999), EJCDC (2002), JCT (2005), AIA (2007, NEC (3) and ICE (7), are analyzed to find out extension of time provisions. Such provisions, related pronouncements and related literatures are analyzed for proposing the guidelines of improvements. The results of study show that Thai construction contract is unclear in 1) grounds for extension of time claim, 2) procedures for claim, and 3) assessment of the extension of time period and liquidated damages. The construction contract should express the extension of time provision clearly for the effective construction management such as the definitions and examples of grounds for extension of time claim, claim procedures, the period that the engineer can spend for determining and responding to claim, calculating the extension of time period, and contractors obligation.