in recent years, I have engaged in some engineering activities and investigations in the highway supervision department, and found that in the current situation of China's highway construction market, the relationship among the owner, the supervisor and the contractor shows the following situations: (1) the owner controls the contract management and the payment of construction funds, while the supervisor controls the project quality and progress; Due to financial problems, the contractor is in a state of supervision and management. Its concrete methods are: social supervision undertakes quality and progress; The contract and expenses (including supervision expenses) are controlled by the owner. In this mode, cost management has become the primary contradiction concentration point in engineering construction. After the contractor completes certain work, the work content, engineering quantity and expense declaration must be examined and approved by the contract supervision team, the resident office, the director's representative office, the owner and other relevant departments, which is cumbersome and time-consuming. At the same time, it caused the following contradictions. (1) before the start of construction, the owner can't coordinate with the relevant local departments in time for the early demolition and other work, resulting in slowdown; Later, the self-made reward and punishment measures were used to require the construction unit to complete the project on time, regardless of the adverse factors such as the weather, and the supervisors were suggested to give the green light. In this way, the work difficulty of supervisors is increased, and at the same time, the quality of the project can not be guaranteed at all. After the contractor completes the construction project, the owner is unwilling to pay the increased expenses due to the above reasons. And once there is a problem with the quality of the project, the site supervisor will take responsibility and be criticized, and the contractor will pay for the rework. (2) the work content that has been reviewed and approved by the resident supervision office and the director's office during the execution of the project, and the owner re-examines the quantities. Re-examination not only leads to the extension of payment time, but also leads to the fact that the owner does not trust the supervisor. (3) because of the management department of project accounting and project cost control, there are very few opportunities to go deep into the construction site, and it is not easy to affirm or deny the measurement, change and claim that have been reviewed and approved by the supervision engineer and design representative, but it is difficult to reply to the change and claim. What's more, the contractor is afraid of delaying the next work because of the change and claim, and denies the change project that has been reported and signed by the supervision engineer and design representative. 4 funds are not in place. After the measurement is completed, the project payment cannot be paid in time, which often leads to the delay of the construction period due to the shortage of funds. (2) As a third party entrusted by the owner and independent of the owner and the contractor, the supervision engineer should protect the interests of both parties fairly and justly in accordance with the norms and laws. However, under the current mode, the supervision engineer has a scientific and standardized exercise of supervision power in his business, but he is subject to the owner in administration, which is at a loss and full of contradictions. The main manifestations are as follows: ① Because the project supervision has become the employer's employment in some form, it will often be obedient to the owner, thus damaging the contractor's interests, which will cause the contractor's negative resistance and the project quality will be threatened. (2) The second review of the application for change and measurement causes the resistance of the supervision engineer, which easily leads to the idea that "it doesn't matter whether you want to review it or not". As a result, the work of measurement and change application is relaxed, and on-site supervision, as the main control gateway of measurement and change data, cannot play a corresponding role. The discovery of problems will inevitably affect the measurement and payment time, thus affecting the progress. (3) The supervisor has become a "mouthpiece" in disguise, giving orders and requirements of the owner to the contractor, using his supervisory power to force the contractor to implement them, and simply uploading the various applications of the contractor to the owner. As for how to solve and implement them, it is completely subordinate to the owner, which cannot really play a fair and just role in coordinating the relationship between the two parties. (3) Due to various factors, in this management mode, the contractor is always in a state of "oppression" among the three: the owner controls the payment of funds, and the supervision engineer controls the quality and progress. Mainly manifested in the following two aspects: ① the examination and approval procedures for engineering measurement payment are too complicated, and the funds cannot be put in place; The owner and supervisor are blindly emphasizing the improvement of quality and at the same time urging the progress. (2) the professional quality of individual supervisors is not high, and they can't express their views on the problems in construction, which leads to the extension of working cycle; Or poor personal conduct, eating, taking, getting stuck, and demanding for the contractor everywhere, making it difficult for the contractor to resist the supervisors more and more. 2. What are the root causes of highway supervision problems? According to the management status of highway construction projects in China at this stage, it is not difficult to see that the FIDIC clause management model can not be copied smoothly in China, and the project management can not be on the right track in a short time. The main reasons are as follows: (1) Affected by the planned economy, the owner, as the investor, has not completely changed the traditional management concept, thinking that the supervisor is entrusted by himself to supervise the project, and the contractor is paid to complete the construction task. Both of them are their own employment, and they cannot accept the situation that the owner, the supervisor and the contractor are "three pillars". (2) The owners are accustomed to "sticking one pole into the end", and it is difficult to change the management idea and management mode of unified management in all details for a while. For the projects funded by themselves, it is difficult to accept the phenomenon of handing over the power of "three controls" to others. However, the micro-management mode of "sticking a pole into the end" has seriously dampened the enthusiasm of supervisors for scientific and standardized management. For a long time, the prestige of the supervisor declined, and the contractor turned a blind eye to the supervisor, which led to inefficiency and disorder. (3) Under the current system, due to the "blood relationship" between the owner and the contractor, the supervision is nominal and powerless, thus the supervision becomes an empty shelf. The payment of supervision fees is completely controlled by the owner. If the supervision fails to carry out the work according to the owner's orders and instructions, it will not be able to get the due fees smoothly, so it can only be obedient to the owner. Whether it is correct or incorrect, it will be implemented. In this way, the supervisor will lose the function of "social supervision" and become the "construction supervisor" sent by the owner to the site. This is also the "pain" that the supervisor can't heal under the current mode. ? (4) The professional level and personal quality of some supervisors are not high. The current supervision mode makes the supervision profitable without taking on too much responsibility. Some supervision companies recruit some students who have just graduated from colleges and universities to engage in front-line construction supervision tasks. These personnel lack rich construction management experience, profound technical knowledge, relevant legal and economic knowledge and serious contract awareness. What's more, some supervision companies have non-professional laymen on the spot. In addition, some supervision units neglect the management of the personnel sent to the site, so that they do not have the all-round and whole-process supervision ability to a certain extent. In this way, it is understandable that the owners will not completely entrust the project management work to them with confidence. (5) Individual contractors can't carry out the construction strictly according to the specifications. They use improper behaviors to induce or force supervisors to cheat, which makes those supervisors with poor quality give up their principles under the attack of contractors' "sugar-coated shells", thus artificially lowering the due inspection standards and laying hidden dangers for the overall project quality. In this way, not only the quality of the project can not be guaranteed, but also it is difficult to ensure the accuracy of the project quantity (especially the number of changes and claims). Countermeasures to reverse the chaotic order of the current highway construction market and put it on the right management road, although it is a long-term and arduous task, it is not irreversible. The following are some personal suggestions and opinions: (1) The Conditions of Civil Engineering Construction Contract formulated by 1)FIDIC has been generally recognized and widely used in the international contracting market, which specifies the responsibilities and rights of owners, supervision engineers and contractors in detail and is a guarantee for the orderly progress of engineering construction projects. Based on the experience and lessons of international and domestic project management, what the supervision engineer has to do is to manage the project contract. Only by being familiar with the contract documents can we manage the project well and realize the overall goal of the construction project. Only in this way can the responsibilities and rights among the owner, supervisor and contractor be guaranteed fairly and justly, and the normal implementation of the project can be guaranteed. (2) It is a prerequisite for the benign development of the "three systems" and the implementation of engineering construction projects to standardize the behavior of the project owner. Owners should seriously study the relevant management knowledge and legal knowledge under the conditions of socialist market economy, change their concepts, and get rid of the mode and thinking of managing engineering construction by administrative means formed in the planned economy era. Especially after joining WTO, highway engineering construction and management thinking should gradually approach the requirements of FIDIC clauses. (3) Improve the professional quality of supervision unit personnel. The reality is that nonstandard owners are a common phenomenon, which requires supervision units to strive to improve the professional quality of supervisors. On the one hand, the quality of supervision engineers should be proficient in laws, mainly the provisions of the Economic Contract Law and FID1C, good at management, mainly managers who are proficient in modern management methods and means, have technical expertise, have various professional knowledge of construction and installation, have rich experience in technical and economic analysis and comparison, and have high intelligence and strong ability. On the other hand, the supervision engineer should assess the situation, correctly handle the relationship with the owner, proceed from the overall situation, put the customer first, serve the owner and be responsible for the owner. Only in this way can we gain the trust of the owner and facilitate the development of supervision work.
when selecting supervisors, the supervision unit should pay more attention to personal character while paying attention to professional quality, so as to ensure that the supervisors can carry out their work fairly, be honest and self-disciplined, and truly shoulder the supervision and management responsibilities stipulated in the contract. Supervision units should regularly conduct a comprehensive assessment of on-site supervisors, strengthen management, and resolutely replace unqualified supervisors. At the same time, supervision units should learn from others' advanced management and management concepts through exchanges and cooperation with excellent supervision enterprises (or individuals) to improve their own strength.
after the owner fully decentralizes and expands the power of the supervision engineer, the supervision engineer should be assessed regularly and managed through the principle of unification of responsibilities and rights. Once it is found that there is abuse of power and corruption, it will be dealt with seriously, and an example will be made. (4) When selecting supervision units and construction units, the owners should first conduct strict qualification examination, and conduct comprehensive inspection and assessment on the quality of construction units, supervision units and their personnel entering the highway construction market, so as to ensure that qualified and capable construction units and supervision units that can truly accomplish supervision tasks fairly and justly enter the highway construction market, and truly stop unqualified enterprises from entering the highway construction market from the source. At the same time, we should let go, delegate power and trust the management power to the supervisor, so that he can carry out his work according to local conditions and seek truth from facts. For those supervision units and construction units with poor contract, responsibility and quality awareness, which can not be equipped with corresponding supervision personnel and construction equipment in strict accordance with the contract commitments and regulations, we will never be soft. (5) Change the previous system that the supervision unit and contractor paid a certain amount of performance bond to the owner, and establish a tripartite performance bond system. After signing the contract, the owner, the supervisor and the contractor all take out a corresponding proportion of funds as their own credit bond to ensure the performance, and deposit them in the special account of the relevant competent department (such as the quality supervision station of the Communications Department). After strict, meticulous and in-depth assessment of the performance, they will give financial penalties to those who fail to perform the contract and compensate those who are damaged. The advantage of this is that not only the contractor and the supervisor unilaterally guarantee the performance to the owner, but the three parties guarantee the performance to each other, which can more effectively ensure that the three parties will restrain their behavior and act in strict accordance with the contract to ensure the quality, quantity and timely completion of the project. 4 Conclusion Since the implementation of the supervision system in China's highway engineering in 1996, it has gone through a running-in period of more than ten years, and its social and economic benefits have been widely recognized. However, due to various social and historical reasons, the current supervision system that the construction party is in charge of the whole project and the supervision becomes the "employee" of the construction party is not really a "social supervision", which makes the behavior relationship among the construction party, the supervision party and the contractor more chaotic. This has affected the normal development of the project and threatened the quality of the project. Since China joined WTO, more and more foreign supervision units and contractors have entered the highway construction market in China. Therefore, while shouting "Wolf is coming", we should pay more attention to learning advanced foreign management experience, standardize and improve China's highway engineering construction management system, so that China's highway engineering management can truly integrate with FIDIC management mode as soon as possible and adapt to the special needs of China's highway engineering construction market. At present, the problems that should be solved in highway supervision work are as follows: (1) Standardizing the owner's behavior is a prerequisite for the benign development of "three systems" and a necessary condition for the implementation of engineering construction projects. (2) Supervisors should strengthen the study of contract law, bidding law and other laws and regulations, and manage contracts according to law. (3) Attach great importance to and strengthen the in-depth study and research on the project construction supervision contract and the project construction contract, which are the important basis for the supervision work. (4) The project payment shall be paid in strict accordance with the payment method agreed in the contract, and the engineering measurement shall be compared with the serial number listed in the bill of quantities in the tender, and the engineering change shall be confirmed according to the measurement and pricing method agreed in the contract. Deduction of project advance payment shall be calculated and deducted according to regulations. At present, it is difficult for supervision to do this, but with the diversification of investment subjects, supervision engineers must be competent for this work. (5) Strengthen the study of FIDIC Civil Engineering Construction Contract Conditions, which is the necessity of supervision marketization and highway construction market.
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