The International Federation of Consulting Engineers (Fidic) deems contractual relationships between parties beneficial, as this addresses the risks between contractors and employees.

Hence, the federation is offering a two-day course designed to offer a complete up-to-date review of the Fidic contracts currently in use. The course will be held on May 18 and 19 in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Fidic Contracts Committee produces standard forms of contract for civil engineering projects, which are used globally.

Fidic cites that the contract modules presented at the course, therefore, explain in detail the content of the contracts’ clauses and how to practically employ the Fidic contracts in international projects.

Module 1 provides essential contractual know-how for working on today’s international projects and Fidic conditions of contracts.

“The course is designed to help participants who are employers, consultants and contractors to have confidence in working with these documents,” says the federation.

The organisation highlights that the forms of contracts are drafted for use on a range of projects. These forms can be differentiated by coloured covers – green for projects that are quick and more straightforward as well as cheap; red repre- sents a more traditional project, which is the employers’ design; pink involves projects where multilatural development banks provide funding; yellow represents contractors’ designs and silver and gold are for turkney projects, as well as design, building and operative projects.

The federation notes that the course will not only provide clarity but also the knowledge to effectively use a Fidic contract, discover which contract is best suited for a particular project and understand the rights and obligations of the employer, the contractor and the engineer under the contracts.

Additionally, the course will assist in mastering an understanding of Fidic’s tools for best-practice project management and help in gaining an understanding of payments, guarantees and retention money under the contracts. Lastly, the course will allow individuals and organisations to improve their ability to evaluate, find consensus and resolve claims and disputes under the Fidic contracts.

The course has been designed to be highly practical, says Fidic, and includes active participation in hands-on workshops and discussion sessions. The course instructor is a professional engineer with extensive international experience with Fidic contracts and is also a Fidic internationally accredited trainer, assures the federation.