SYNOPSIS

The duty of the Superintending Officer (SO) is burdensome and he must act fairly in any certification, inclusive of certifying Time Extensions. He is faced with a barrage of consideration in respect of time extensions and the claim for loss and expense. Amongst the events are force majeure; adverse weather; events under insurance contingencies (eg. fire, storm, tempest, lighting, flood, earthquakes, aircraft or things dropped therefrom, aerial objects, riot, commotion); civil commotion, strike or lock-out; S.O.’s instructions; late instructions; NSC or nominated supplier’s delay; delay by artist, tradesmen; delay in material supplied by Employer; opening up work for testing and inspection; act of prevention; and other grounds. The issues of giving of notice and details will affect the contractor’s entitlement to EOT. What constitutes notice? If the contractor’s delay overlaps with EOT events, what is his entitlement? Can S.O. grant EOT after date of completion has passed? The claim on loss and expense will also be discussed.


BIODATA OF SPEAKER - Ir. LEON WENG SENG

Ir. Leon graduated with Bachelor degree in Civil Engineering in 1980 and went on to obtain an honours degree in law with the University of London and a postgraduate Diploma in Arbitration with the University of Reading.  He is a corporate member of The IEM and a registered professional engineer and is an advocate and solicitor of the High Court of Malaya (non-practising).

Ir. Leon is the principal of a civil and structural engineering consultancy firm.  He has vast experiences in the administration of construction contracts including giving advice on contractual, mediation, adjudication and arbitration matters.  His other areas of particular interest are forensic engineering and investigation of collapsed structures and slopes, and assessment of fire damaged structures.  He acts as expert witness in courts and arbitration.

Ir. Leon is also a CIDB accredited mediator, Fellow and a Chartered Arbitrator of The Chartered Institute of Arbitrators in London and an Adjudicator of KLRCA.  He is a committee member of the Dispute Avoidance and Resolution Practice of the IEM and the past Chairman (2008–2010) of the Chartered Institute Arbitrators (CIArb) Malaysia Branch. He is sitting as arbitrator in various on-going arbitrations.