For forty years the New Zealand works contract had one person in the middle: the Engineer to the Contract. The Engineer administered the contract for the Principal, and, when the contract entrusted a decision to the Engineer, decided it fairly and impartially between the parties. It was a fine skill to do both at once, and the industry never quite trusted it.
NZS 3910:2023 ends the dual role. There are now two appointments.
The Contract Administrator
The Contract Administrator acts for the Principal. They run the contract day to day: issue instructions, manage the programme and the registers, and handle the correspondence. There is no pretence of impartiality. The Contract Administrator is the Principal’s agent and the contract says so.
The Independent Certifier
The Independent Certifier makes the decisions the contract reserves to it, impartially between the parties. The Independent Certifier cannot be the same person as the Contract Administrator, and must act independently of the Principal’s commercial interests. Under the 2013 edition, that independence was a professional discipline. Under 2023 it is a contractual requirement.
What this means when you let a contract
You appoint two people, not one. They can come from the same consultancy, as they do on Te Aka Raataa Stage 2, where Kirsten Dovey is Contract Administrator and I am Independent Certifier. But the roles must be undertaken by separate individuals and remain functionally independent at all times. Ask your consultant how they keep them apart.
Every document says which hat is on. An instruction from the Contract Administrator and a determination from the Independent Certifier are different documents with different consequences. Your contract file should make that obvious at a glance, with the role stated in the title block of every instruction, decision and certificate.
The Independent Certifier needs the record, not the relationship. A certifier who has not been in the weekly meetings decides on what is written down. That is why the registers matter more under 2023 than they did before: instructions, RFIs, variations, time, payments and defects, live and complete.
Your own staff can administer, but not certify. A council may put its own project manager in the Contract Administrator seat. The Independent Certifier has to be independent of the Principal, so that seat goes to someone outside.
Carrying the discipline back to 2013 contracts
Many contracts, including most term contracts, are still under the 2013 edition and will be for years. We apply the same separation voluntarily on those: the Engineer’s Representative does the day-to-day administration, and the Engineer’s decisions are made in writing, with reasons, by a different person. It costs nothing extra and it makes the decision defensible when it is tested.
If you are considering an appointment
Tell us the contract form and edition, the stage you are at and who else is already appointed. We will say which role we can take, who would hold it, and how the independence is maintained.