On 11 January 2018, a Decision approving the short form agreement and the general and specific conditions (the “New Standard Agreement“) to be used by contracting authorities for public procurement of works or design and works was published in the Romanian Official Gazette. The New Standard Agreement applies only to new procurement projects.
The New Standard Agreement is mandatory for construction or design and construction projects valued at over EUR 5m, financed from public sources – as such, the Standard Agreement is very much inspired by the amended FIDIC 1987 Red Book.
The most important changes of the New Standard Agreement over the former standard agreements approved by the Ministry of Transportation are:
- the New Standard Agreement stipulates a 30 days payment term (which is half of the payment term provided in the former standard agreements) starting from the issuance of the payment certificate by the engineer;
- introduction of the Supervisor – an economic operator or a team within the beneficiary of the works, appointed by the Beneficiary. The Supervisor has technical, financial and contractual tasks set out in the New Standard Agreement, such as the duty of the Supervisor to prepare a report at the completion of works whereby the Supervisor will recommend to the Beneficiary to admit, postpone or reject the reception of works;
- the New Standard Agreement provides that the interested parties can opt for mediation or arbitration (in front of the Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania) in case of dispute.
