Management of variations with the use of standard forms of contract in public sector building projects in Sri Lanka

Abstract

In most of the public construction projects in developing countries, a large number of ‘variations’ that result from the changes made to the original scopes of the projects urge the need of variation management by the parties to a contract. This study explores the ways of managing variations in public sector building projects executed in Sri Lanka with the use of Standard Forms of Contract. It applied a qualitative research approach and used a comprehensive literature review expert interviews for data collection. Manual content analysis was used to analyse the collected data. The findings reveal numerous causes of variations for which the Employer, Consultant, Contractor, or certain other factors are responsible. The research also reveals that the variations could be minimised by adopting strategies, such as the preparation of a fully detailed Employer’s brief, review of the design and deployment of qualified personnel. The study proposes to modify the variation clause by adding more explanations in the Standard Form of Contract to facilitate effective variation management in Sri Lanka.