6.10.1. Concept of GC
As per the Development Plan, the GC's appointment shall begin even before the Gateway Stage B2. This involves identifying the GC as the first step; however, execution of Contract shall happen only on completion of the entire development plan.
The concept of General Contractor is new to the construction industry in India. Earlier each of the package or group of packages were awarded to a Contractor, and all these contractors were managed by PMC or engineering department of Phoenix. Under GC type of contract management, (a) some of the packages are awarded to the GC who in turn engage sub-vendors for some of the Works, (b) some of the packages are awarded to the GC as nominated sub-contractors for GC to manage [tri-partite or other mechanism] and (c) some of the packages are awarded as direct Contract to various vendors with GC as the overall coordinator of the Project. Unlike PMC, GC is expected to take the complete responsibility of all the vendors' schedule, quality, and safety. The Budget would still be either under the GC's responsibility or the Phoenix depending upon the Contract structure as explained above.
The highlights of GC arrangement are;
- GC acts as an overall custodian and single point of responsibility for the site.
- GC takes responsibility for the schedule of the whole project irrespective of whether it is with in his direct scope or NSC.
- Many of the common general attendance to the sub-vendors are provided by the GC resulting in avoidance of duplication.
- Safety and security of the site are under a single agency.
- GC takes the responsibility of site-level coordination between the works & the vendors.
- Some of the shared infrastructures at site level are provided by the GC (General Attendance).
- Most of the PMVs (Plant, Machinery and Vehicles) are hired for the project as a whole and usage between various vendors managed by the GC.
Since the GCs are reputed large organisations, the Phoenix can leverage the GC's expertise in delivering the Projects in time.
6.10.2. The process of appointment
Rule 6.21
Concept Note on GC's appointment, including the roles and responsibilities, is given as Appendix 9 .The process
flow chart of GC Appointment is given as Appendix 10
. These guidelines need to be adhered to whenever negotiations with a GC is initiated (Rule 6.21)
).
As said, as per the Development Plan, the appointment of General Contractor is initiated even before the conclusion of the Gateway process Stage B2.
Rule 6.22
The process involved in the appointment of General Contractor is as under (Rule 6.22)
- Closer to the readiness of the Gateway, the CDD shall issue a synopsis of the Project with indicative quantities/scope of Work, project layout, master plan etc. to GM office.
- The Procurement Department shall share the list of shortlisted GCs (pre-validated / PQ done) to GM office.
- GM office shall put in a "Request for services – appointment of GC" to the Pre-contract team. The request shall be accompanied with (a) Key features of the project (b) Outline of engagement (strategy) (c) Intended timeline of the Project (d) Roles and responsibilities of the GC (e) Quality and safety standards (e) responsibility matrix of GC and NSC. The GM office shall source this information by discussing with the CDD team & Commercial department.
- Based on the above data/information, Pre-contract shall prepare an invitation for Expression of Interest to be filled and submitted by the shortlisted GCs
- Shortlisted GCs to submit the EOI with details of their experience, how they intend to develop the Project, indicative timeline and other information as required by the Pre-Contract as detailed in the invitation etc.
- On Closure of Gateway Stage B2, CDD team shall share the Tender documents with drawings of all the packages and the Budget.
- The Pre-contract team shall evaluate the EOI and select the GC vendors eligible to do the bidding in consultation with Commercial, Procurement and GM office. Consideration shall be given to inputs from the management, as beyond the capabilities, strategically, we may not want to award all projects to one Vendor.
- In parallel, the Pre-contract shall prepare the final Tender and share the Tender with shortlisted GC Vendors. The Pre-Contract should have completed the quantity validation exercise in parallel.
- In the interest of time, the Tender packages as received can be shared with the bidders with clear remark in the Tender document that the same is under review and validation and the final quantities shall be shared post quantity validation exercise but before start of final rate negotiations. Commercial discussion cannot be initiated unless the quantity validation of the BOQ is completed by the Pre-Contract Team.
- The Tender document shall, among other things include GCC, SCC, the Schedule, QA & Safety records, responsibility matrix of all NSC and note on how to bid for the Work.
- Before submitting the Bid, based on the bidders' request, the pre-contract may hold multiple meetings with the bidders to resolve all their technical queries to make the bids compatible with each other. If there are many technical variations compared to what was initially indicated, the GCs shall be permitted to submit priced BOQs based on the amended Tender. The Pre-contract shall issue timely amended notices for changes in the tender document. However, Pre-contract cannot change any of the Tender's conditions and specifications without consulting & authorisation from the CDD, Commercial and Procurement team as the case may be.
- The final selected GC vendor shall prepare and submit the Tender with rates and the contracting strategy, site logistics plan and strategy to complete the Project as per the indicated schedule.
- As per the new strategy of contract pricing, the Bidders should be asked to provide the pricing of the bid in three buckets. In Bucket one, Preliminaries for Civil, Preliminaries for General attendance & PMV (chargeable to Client) and Preliminaries to be back charged to NSC as per Scope Matrix, should be provided as schedules. These shall be further sub-divided into time-based cost and one-time cost. Bucket one shall be used for any entitlement of cost in future due to Client attributed delays.. The second bucket should be unit rate items for direct works as per BOQ which need to be split into Basic rates where applicable and conversion rates without preliminaries. The third bucket is schedule of NSC management fees in terms of % on the value of work to be done by NSC as direct package under client or novated under the GC as pass through, which shall be a provisional sum at the time of award of Contract.
- Pre-contract shall evaluate the priced bid document and prepare the price comparison chart.
- No commercial discussion be initiated with short listed vendors unless all the technical queries, contract documents, schedule, scope matrix and other terms and conditions are discussed and agreed. The price negotiation should be the last of the discussion with the shortlisted vendors.
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The Procurement department shall conclude the rate negotiations along with the Commercial department assisted by the Pre-contract team. The shortlisted Bid shall be sent to the Finance Committee, for approval.
- The Finance committee will provide the selected Bid's approval, including approval of deviations if any. This approval shall be sent to the Commercial department with a copy to Pre-contract.
- Based on the Finance committee approval, Pre-contract shall prepare & issue the Letter of Award with a suitable clause for engagement of GC's planning team (with scope & Budget as stop gap arrangement) till the execution of Contract, for management of award of other packages & preparatory works.
- The stopgap arrangement is a mechanism where the GC contract is still to be executed pending financial closure. However, the GC team will appoint its contracts & planning team to help close all the other packages and complete the planning of the works based on resource-based billing, pending financial closure and execution of the Contract.
- Based on the issue of LOA, GM office shall have a series of meetings with GC and onboard the stop-gap team.
- The GM office shall circulate the Project Directory and Communication Protocol along with the MoM.
- FC to confirm financial closure and availability of funding
- Pre-contract to execute the final Contract with shortlisted GC
- Initial introduction meeting with GC shall be held along with Pre-contract team, GM office and Commercial Department to understand the Contract and all the essential provisions.
On Completion of Stage D of the Development plan,
Rule 6.23
In projects (a) which did not follow the Development plan sofar, or (b) the development plan is complete, financial closure is achieved but GC is not on board, or (c) the Project has started without the Development plan, the process would remain largely the same except that the time lag in steps due to Development Plan, would not be applicable. However, achieving financial closure is mandatory for the execution of the contract and onboarding the GC. (Rule 6.23)
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