Reflections on the quality insurance model of construction projects?

The quality of construction projects is directly related to the safety of people's lives and property. With the rapid expansion of the scale of the construction industry, the complexity of the building has brought many risks, and the project quality management is facing unprecedented pressure. It is an international practice to introduce engineering quality insurance system in the field of construction engineering. In 2005, the former Ministry of Construction and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission jointly issued the Opinions on Promoting the Quality Insurance of Construction Projects (Jian Zhi [2005] 133), which meant the formal implementation of the project quality insurance system. Subsequently, Shanghai, Beijing and other cities actively carried out the pilot work of construction engineering quality insurance, but overall, the progress was slow and the effect was not satisfactory. 2065438+February 2006, the State Council issued "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Management of Urban Planning and Construction", which showed the country's willingness to establish the engineering quality insurance system again. But overall, the practice of engineering quality insurance system is progressing slowly. The purpose of this paper is to analyze and think about the practice of China's current construction engineering quality insurance system, on the one hand, to solidify the existing achievements, on the other hand, to improve the existing shortcomings, and to think about optimizing the current construction engineering quality insurance model.

Literature review

Literature review

There are many researches on construction engineering quality insurance in China, but most of them analyze the problems existing in the current construction engineering quality insurance pilot from a macro perspective. Wu Zhen (20 16), Zhang, Peng and Yang Guandi (20 16) analyzed the problems existing in the current engineering quality insurance from the aspects of policies and regulations, market environment and the power of the third-party system. Wang Hongxin (20 15) thinks that the compulsory insurance system of residential engineering quality should be improved from the aspects of speeding up legislation, constructing credit evaluation system, reforming insurance rates and cultivating third-party appraisal institutions. [1] Some scholars and experts have demonstrated the importance and necessity of engineering quality insurance from the perspective of economics. Zhao Haipeng, Chen Xiaolong and others (2007) used externality theory to demonstrate the necessity of establishing engineering quality insurance from the perspective of social cost and social welfare changes, and analyzed the mechanism of external diseconomy caused by engineering quality defects. Cao Xiaolan discusses adverse selection and prevention of moral hazard with cost-utility curve. There are also some scholars and experts devoted to the analysis and research on the bottleneck of the development of residential quality insurance.

Thinking Based on Existing Literature

As can be seen from the above research, many scholars have demonstrated the necessity and value of implementing the quality insurance system. Facing the characteristics of large investment, wide coverage, long construction period, high interest correlation and complex technical requirements, the practical significance of promoting construction project quality insurance is obvious. Theoretically, the introduction of engineering quality insurance is the result of multi-stakeholder governance, and it is a practice of changing from single government management to multi-management system. This is essentially the practice of theories such as multi-agent and multi-center governance. These theories emphasize the cooperation between different actors to solve the dilemma of collective action and achieve the same goal [2]. From a practical point of view, first of all, the introduction of engineering quality insurance can avoid engineering technical risks. Second, reduce the burden on enterprises. Construction enterprises need to pay bid bond, quality bond and other kinds of deposits before putting into construction, which greatly squeezes the working capital of enterprises and increases the transaction cost and burden of enterprises. If the quality insurance system is introduced, the deposit can be replaced by an insurance contract, which greatly reduces the burden on enterprises. Third, transform government functions, introduce social management and market means, and strengthen project quality supervision. Insurance companies play the role of third-party supervision and social management to monitor the quality and safety of buildings. On the one hand, insurance companies can participate in quality monitoring on behalf of small owners. As a commercial organization, insurance companies must have the interest of quality control in order to reduce compensation. From the architectural design stage, they will intervene in quality management, send an independent third-party quality inspection agency to carry out quality control from the construction drawing review, and submit relevant rectification for quality defects, which has become another quality control channel besides government supervision and market supervision. From the long-term practical experience in the world, it can effectively improve the engineering quality. On the other hand, economic leverage and credit mechanism are used to restrain the behavior of all parties in engineering construction. However, it should be noted that the project quality insurance system is the result of the joint efforts and interests of the government, contractors, owners, insurance companies and other parties. Any party's uncooperative attitude or failure to participate in insurance may put the project quality insurance system in trouble.

Phased development of engineering quality insurance system practice

Brewing stage (before 2005)

As early as 2000, the State Council issued the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects, which defined the responsibilities and obligations of five responsible parties and stipulated the specific warranty period of construction project quality. Government departments have also begun to brew the engineering insurance system, and systematically study the engineering quality insurance as a special topic. In 2002 and 2004, I went to France, Spain and other countries with China People's Property Insurance Co., Ltd. to inspect the implementation of engineering quality insurance. The Cooperation Agreement on Grade A Residential Quality Assurance Insurance signed by the Ministry of Construction and China People's Insurance Company marks a major breakthrough in the field of residential construction and provides an overall framework for the development of China's engineering quality insurance system.

Document Publication and Pilot Stage (20/200515)

After a great deal of investigation and study, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the Trial Measures for Quality Warranty Insurance of Construction Projects in 2005, which provided policy guidance for the implementation of the project quality insurance system and marked that the project quality insurance officially entered the policy field of vision. 14 Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other cities have tried out quality insurance for construction projects, and formulated relevant regulations and measures, thus cultivating a good policy soil. In May, 2006, China Insurance Regulatory Commission approved the clause of "Construction Project Quality Insurance" and began to formally implement the project quality insurance. In April 2009, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Quality Supervision and Management of Construction Projects, and once again demanded the implementation of the project quality insurance system. However, practice shows that the project quality insurance system has not been effectively promoted, and only a few projects are willing to insure. The reasons may be as follows: first, the insurance coverage is too wide, which leads to high premium, too much pressure on the construction unit and low enthusiasm for insurance; Second, the conflict between government functions and interests makes it difficult to implement insurance. For example, although local legislation clearly stipulates that insurance can replace property warranty, in practice, government departments are responsible for both managing warranty and reviewing replacement warranty, and the conflict of functions and interests makes it difficult to implement insurance.

The exploration of engineering quality insurance mode has once again entered the policy field of vision.

(20 15 to present) In 20 15, the National Development and Reform Commission and the China Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the Guiding Opinions on Insurance Industry Supporting Major Project Construction, requesting to strengthen the protection of major project construction. 2065438+In February, 2006, the State Council issued "Several Opinions on Further Strengthening the Management of Urban Planning and Construction", proposing "to implement the system of bank guarantee and engineering quality liability insurance for construction enterprises. Establish a risk control mechanism for large-scale engineering technology and encourage large-scale public buildings and subways to insure major engineering insurance with insurance companies in accordance with the principle of marketization. " The introduction of these policies shows that the state hopes to use insurance to boost the development of the construction industry, especially to improve the quality of projects.

Dilemma of current engineering quality insurance practice

Although government departments provide a more positive policy environment, there are still many obstacles in actual operation. This dilemma comes from many obstacles such as policy environment and technical level.

Encourage insurance instead of compulsory insurance, and have low enthusiasm.

According to the current situation of the construction market, the insurance subject is divided into two forms: compulsory insurance and encouraged insurance. China has not yet legislated to determine the compulsory status of engineering quality insurance. At present, the construction engineering quality insurance policy is voluntary insurance, which has no mandatory effect. Under the circumstances that the leading role of the government is not obvious enough and the main role of the insurance company has not been fully established, the practice motivation of the construction project quality insurance system is insufficient and the progress is slow.

As a third party, the quality inspection mechanism is not perfect.

Insurance companies need to supervise the whole process of the insured projects, and they need to hire a third-party construction project quality and safety risk management agency (TIS) to manage the insurance liability. However, in the existing quality control system of construction projects in China, there is no TIS or equivalent system. At present, there are two main types of institutions engaged in engineering quality supervision in China. One is the supervision unit, entrusted by the construction unit; The other is the quality supervision station, which is entrusted by the construction administrative department to supervise the construction project. However, these two types of institutions are not real third-party quality inspection institutions. The former is driven by interests, so it is difficult to remain objective and provide scientific and accurate evaluation for insurance companies. The latter's supervision mode is mainly inspection and spot check, and it is difficult to supervise the whole process.

Disagreement with insurance institutions

The design of insurance period is the most prominent contradiction and disagreement with insurance institutions in the process of establishing engineering quality insurance system. In the setting of insurance system in China, it is clearly required that "the scope and duration of insurance protection shall not be lower than the provisions of laws and regulations", and the relevant provisions stipulate that the warranty period of foundation and main body is the design service life, that is, the whole life cycle of the structure. But for this, the insurance company is unacceptable. It is considered that the construction engineering quality insurance with long insurance period lacks market supply and poor operability, and there are no cases for foreign construction engineering quality insurance to learn from. This is also an important reason why the system is difficult to really implement.

Optimization suggestion

Revising the laws and regulations related to engineering quality insurance depends on policies.

Practice shows that all countries that have successfully carried out engineering quality insurance, such as France and Spain, have made engineering quality insurance mandatory through legislation. Drawing lessons from the advanced experience of developed countries, by revising the Construction Law, Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects and other relevant laws and regulations, it is clear that engineering quality insurance is compulsory in the form of laws and administrative regulations. However, it takes a long time to amend the upper-level law and to formulate a new law. We can consider starting with local laws and regulations and some detailed rules to take the lead in implementing compulsory engineering quality insurance in pilot cities. At present, Beijing has incorporated the project quality insurance into the Regulations of Beijing Municipality on Quality Management of Construction Projects, and formally implemented the construction project quality insurance system.

Introduce an independent project quality risk management organization.

In the process of implementing engineering quality insurance, independent third-party risk management institutions or relevant professional and technical personnel are introduced to carry out engineering quality risk inspection, and a whole chain risk management mechanism of prevention in advance, control in the process and claim settlement afterwards is constructed. The risk management institution shall be independent and shall not have any relationship with the project construction unit, the construction unit and other participants. Only entrusted by the insurance company, it conducts risk assessment and risk control for the insurance company, and supervises the whole process of the design and construction of the insured project. This institution should understand both insurance and engineering construction, which requires the relevant employees to be compound talents in insurance and construction engineering.

Adopt * * * insurance mode to enhance the insurance industry's ability to resist risks.

The risk of building quality defect insurance is huge, which is one of the important reasons for the low enthusiasm of insurance companies. From the insurance company's point of view, in order to enhance the ability to resist risks, the underwriting mode of construction quality insurance can be adopted, that is, insurance companies with certain strength form an insurance body. Setting the requirements of "unified insurance clauses, unified rate range, unified claims service and unified information platform" is an extraordinary measure to solve the chaotic situation in the early development of construction quality insurance system and purify the market.

Establishing credit evaluation system of engineering quality

Establish the credit system of the construction parties and project leaders, implement the mandatory constraint of the project quality risk management system, publicize the enterprises and individuals with quality problems and "immoral behaviors", adjust the insurance rate according to the information grade differentiation, increase the insurance cost for the unqualified construction personnel, encourage insurance companies to adopt building codes in insurance review to reduce insurance claims, and give full play to the subjective initiative of all parties in construction projects.

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