PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE
Assignment 5
Important Areas of Understanding
Additional Understanding
Critical Review of the Assignment
Provisional Sums
The Pre-Contract Stage
The Pre-Contract Stage assignment had us focus on the preparation of provisional sums and prime cost amounts that we felt would be necessary for the MDA 3 Major Project. Our assignment had us focus on the Major Project and then come up with motivations as to why we should include our chosen items as either provisional sums or prime cost amounts. The CON4034W course worked hand-in-hand with the CON4032F course and the provisional sums chosen for this assignment would later have to be included in our final draft Bills of Quantities for the CON4032F course.
The assignment required an explanation for each of the provisional sums or prime cost amounts that we included. This was done in the form of an essay, which provided a reasonable argument, backed up by relevant empirical data and/or literature which evidenced the reliability of the decision to include the item. Additionally, issues such as risk to the client, contractual and documentation issues, etc. had to be addressed in the explanation.
The assignment consisted of two parts, one being the decision of which items to include as either provisional sums or prime cost amounts and two being the actual calculation of how much either the provisional sum or prime cost amount would be estimated at.
I feel that I managed to complete this assignment relatively painlessly and successfully. I found that my reasons for including the various provisional sums and prime cost amounts was repetitive and that due to the poor quality of the MDA 3 Major Project drawing I used the reason of ‘not having enough information’ as the explanation for including many of my items.
With regards to the calculation of the provisional sums and prime cost amounts, I found that some of my estimated values were very rough (which they can be) and I was unsure of the degree of accuracy which needed to be used when establishing provisional costs and prime cost amounts.
This assignment’s hand-in was delayed as a result of the information necessary for it did not coincide with the progression of the CON4032F course. We were given additional time to critically analyse our decisions for including our respective provisional sums and prime cost amounts.
It is important to note that the majority of Bills of Quantities (BOQ) that are complied nowadays are provisional, meaning that more than 50% of the BOQ is given provisional amounts.
Provisional sums are included in a Bill of Quantities to account for items, in the proposed project, that the quantity surveyor feels would increase risk to themselves and/or the client. Another reason for including a provisional some may be because there is just not enough information on the drawing to give there correct quantity for that specific item or because the work to be done requires a specialist subcontractor. A provisional sum will be a provisional amount (that can be varied) that is included in the Bill of Quantities for a specific item.
This is the stage in which the QS is to prepare the BOQ. S/he must therefore be in continual communications with the other professionals involved in the project. It is essential that the QS attends the necessary site and other meetings, as designs will continually be updated and it is the QS’s responsibility to keep up to date with the latest design information.
Guest Lecturer