Payments are major concerns to Contractors and Employers. As the duration of the construction projects are usually long, contract sums involved are large and payments are only progressively paid rather then on delivery, thus the payments are lifeblood of the Construction Industry. In common law and in the absence of any provision in the contract for interim payments during the progress of work, the Contractor would not be entitled to such payment for his work done progressively unless he has fully or substantially completed his contracted work.
Nevertheless, in the present construction industry, almost all construction contracts have claims or payment application and certification provisions, which are usually applied and implemented on monthly or stage payment basis. Interim or progress payment claims are usually prepared by the Contractor and submitted to the Consulting Quantity Surveyor for valuation, which in turn is then submitted to the Architect/Engineer/Superintending Officer (SO)/Project Director (PD) for certification. The Employer is required to pay within a specified period after having received the said interim payment certificate from the Architect/Engineer/SO/PD, who usually acts as the Contract Administrator of the project.
Before we go further answering the aforesaid Titled Question, let us look into the standard form of contract provision for interim payment applications that is commonly used in the Malaysia Construction Industry.
