ABSTRACT

Early warnings are a key component of the overall risk management process in the Engineering and Construction Contract (ECC). The ECC obliges the Project Manager and the Contractor to notify each other as soon as either becomes aware of any matter which could affect the project in terms of time, cost or quality. The early warning procedure obliges people to be "proactive", notifying and dealing with risks as soon as the parties become aware of them, rather than "reactive", waiting to see what effect they have, then trying to deal with them when it is often too late. All commercial contracts are concerned with risk and with the allocation of risks to the Parties. NEC contracts go one step further than many other contracts and provide procedures for directly managing risk. A schedule of early warnings should be kept, identifying and numbering each early warning, with additional information about each one.