Construction, like other commercial enterprises require parties to enter into a legal binding agreement. Usually, the parties to such as contract will be the Employer and the Contractor. Whereas the Contractor constructs the works, the Employer is obliged to pay the Contractor as agreed for works done.

The parties usually agree in their contract to allow an independent third party administer the contract. This person is usually generally referred to as the Consultant. In other construction contracts, he could be referred as Engineer (FIDIC), Project Manager (NEC) etc. in most traditional contracts, the Consultant is employed by the Client and responsible for paying his remuneration and other reimbursable expenses. It is expected that even in the light of the above, the Consultant remains impartial to both parties in the discharge of his responsibilities.

Who is the Consultant?

FIDIC defines the Engineer as the person appointed by the Employer to act as the Engineer for the purposes of the Contract. It is worthy to note that legally, a person here could be a natural or a non-natural person. What this means is that an individual or a company (institutional) can play the role of a Consultant or Engineer. This Consultant will usually have a separate contract with the Employer which outlines his scope of services, liabilities etc.

What are the types of Services a Consultant will render?

The Client may engage the services of a Consultant on a full time professional service or may just require a partial service.

Full professional service

For a full professional service, the Consultant Consulting Engineer to a Client for a project will be involved in these five main stages, as follows:

1. Investigation, concept design and report
2. detailed design and preparation of cost estimates
3. preparation of bidding and contract documents
4. services-during-construction and acceptance of Works
5. Defects notification and resolution of final account.

Partial service

A Consultant here, undertakes only some of the services comprised in a full professional service. The Consultant under a partial service is not in a position to take responsibility for the performance or consequence of those which are not entrusted to him. The decision to engage a consultant on a full or partial service mainly is at the discretion of the Client. In performing any of the above services, the principal duty of a Consulting Engineer is to render faithfully those which are entrusted to him, and the remuneration he receives is solely that paid by his Client.