Thoughts on Contract Administration

Dealing with contractors is not an easy proposition. The contractor is neither thy enemy nor is it thy brother. The contractor is a business associate who shares only some of the client s objectives. Any responsible contractor will share the quality objective with the client and, unless otherwise proven, must be given full credit for that. Beyond quality, the objectives usually start diverging  

Both objectives are legitimate and the contract minimizes conflicts by establishing procedures and regulating the actions of both parties. For example  

Although a contract ultimately implies an adversarial relationship, that concept must not be brought down to the day-to-day dealings, especially with the contractor s Project Manager. It is important that both project managers establish a good rapport after all, they have a mutual objective a successful project. However, both project managers must remember that they also represent opposite sides of a contract. 

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