Would someone guide me on what will be the Contractor’s liability for defects that resulted in impeding the performance criteria set out within the WI, considering the fact that design changes were proposed by the Contractor and was accepted by the Project Manager. What would be the case if the defect was as a result of Contractor’s design of his own WI which was accepted by the Project Manager and has nothing to do with changes?
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If the Contractors design proposals did not meet the requirements of the Works Information then the acceptance by the Project Manager does not change liability for the Contractor to meet the original requirements so liability is still with the Contractor (clause 14.1). It is the same answer if it had been Contractor design.
Acceptance by the PM is the chance to review the submission and check there is no obvious reason to them that they should not accept it, and indeed a chance to say no they don’t like it and want it changed but this would then be a compensation event (assuming a change to Works Information).
Depending on which option you are working under you then apply the contractual rules as to who picks up “the bill”. Under A/B this would be the Contractor but options C onwards the cost of correcting defects would potentially be shared (unless a specific reason to be a Disallowed Cost).