Understanding benefits and challenges of adopting FIDIC Silver Book for major infrastructure projects – Perspectives from Mauritius

International Federation of Consulting Engineers (FIDIC) contracts are used worldwide in the implementation of major infrastructure projects to ensure successful project completion. In the Mauritian construction sector, the FIDIC Red Book was predominantly used for large infrastructure projects, with project professionals well-versed in its application. However, over the past decade, with increasing project complexities, there has been a shift towards the adoption of EPC/turnkey projects by client organisations and hence the use of the FIDIC Silver Book. The aim of this study was to explore the perceived benefits and challenges brought by this change in contract strategy. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with a purposive sample of 12 project managers working in client, consultant and contractor organisations who had more than 10 years of experience in administering FIDIC contracts. Results indicate that clients perceived that using the Silver Book helped to reduce project delivery times as well as stakeholder coordination requirements and obtain better value-for-money due to increased contractor’s efficiency. However, Clients also recognized that significant challenges remain in terms of the need to draft clear employer’s requirements, ensuring quality control, increased tendering prices and management of scope/design changes. On the other hand, consultants and contractors were of the opinion that the major benefits related to having more control on constructability, scheduling and innovation aspects. However, they also identified several challenges including increased contractor risks due to lack of site information at tender stage, insufficient procurement timeframes for bid preparation, at-risk work involving significant resources, lack of experts for specific components and ambiguities in employer’s specifications leading to contractual disputes during execution. The study has provided useful insights on benefits and challenges of adopting the FIDIC Silver Book and can help stakeholders take mitigating measures to ensure that adequate regulatory and technological frameworks are set up to foster its uptake.