NEC ECC: Delegation of Supervisors Duties

NEC3 and NEC4 Contracts Testing and Defects
1

I am currently working for a contractor under an ECC Option C contract.

The Employer has 2 supervisors named in the contract. One deals with architectural elements and the other M&E. The first part of my question is, is this allowed?
My thoughts are, there should be one named Supervisor who has delegated the M&E elements to another person. (We should also be notified of the details of this delegation)

Secondly, the Employer is looking to appoint 2 separate Clerk of Works, each to work under their respective Supervisor.

The Supervisors wish the CoW’s the carry out the bulk of their work, including the notification of defects. But, they also want the discretion to decide which defects they get involved with…in particular where the Contractor might contest that the notification actually covers incomplete work and therefore there is no defect.

My questions are…ignoring the further complication of having two Supervisors; can they delegate all their duties and still carry out those duties, and also can they overrule / revise any decision made by the CoW’s?

I foresee this becoming potentially very confusing as we could have 4 people raising and closing defects, without clear boundaries between CoW and Supervisors remit.

2

To take your points in turn nothing particularly wrong with this and certainly not contractually incorrect. It seems to make some sense here where you have clearly different skill sets for Architectural and M&E. Even if only one Supervisor was named, they could delegate powers anyway so you would get to the same point. The Supervisor (or Supervisors) can delegate their powers down to anyone else and this obviously has to be communicated in writing to the Contractor clearly outlining their powers.

Fact you have four people here involved in the process is not a contractual problem. You hope they all work with a degree of pragmatism and common sense (which I get is not always the case!)

If they notify a defect and it is simply incomplete work, I get that this may generate some unnecessary paperwork and hassle for you but other than that it changes nothing else contractually.

I always try as a Contractor to form a good relationship and level of understanding with these Supervisor’s/C of Works so everyone is pulling in the same direction. I do realise certain personalities sometimes do not seem to want to pull in the same direction no matter how hard you try!!