# Who tracks defect correction costs on Burao builds? > Defect cost tracking experience gaps in Burao leave correction budgets understated at bid stage, and the money only appears when defects surface. - Published: 22 September 2026 - Publication: Somali Construction Review (https://somaliconstructionreview.com) - Subject: Business and Costs - Place: Burao, Somaliland - Tags: burao, somaliland, cost-control, construction-risk, experience-gaps - Web version: https://somaliconstructionreview.com/blog/defect-cost-tracking-experience-gaps-burao ## Key points - A bidder who has never logged defect repair costs cannot price a rectification allowance, so the correction budget is understated from the start. - The gap shows up as vague snag lists, no cost codes for rework, and rectification that runs outside the valuation cycle. - Ask for a defect register from a completed job and a method statement stating who pays for each repair, then fix the allowance in the contract before work starts. Defect cost tracking experience gaps in Burao leave correction budgets understated on paper. A bidder who has never recorded what a repair actually consumed, in labour, material and plant hours, has nothing to price a rectification allowance from. The allowance is then guessed low, the tender looks competitive, and the shortfall surfaces later as a dispute or as unfinished work. Checking this before award is cheaper than checking it during the defects period. ## What does weak defect cost tracking experience look like in a Burao bid? The first sign is a bill of quantities that carries no line for rework. Ask the bidder to show where rectification costs sit. If they cannot point to a cost code, the allowance is missing rather than small. A firm with real tracking experience can show a defect register from a completed job: a list of each defect, the trade that fixed it, the days and materials it took, and whether the cost came out of the main works or a separate correction budget. External finishes are where repair history matters most, so ask the bidder for repair records on comparable external finishes and confirm the local exposure conditions with the project's specification or a local engineer. Ask whether the bidder has tracked repairs on comparable external work, on comparable structures, under those conditions. ## How do understated correction budgets create execution risk? When the correction allowance is understated, the pressure lands on the site team. A supervisor working to a tight budget has three levers: fix it properly, fix it cheaply, or leave it. If the defect register does not exist and the client does not see the log, the second and third options stay invisible until handover. The mechanism is simple. Rework consumes labour already committed elsewhere, so the programme slips. If nobody records the hours, the slip looks like poor productivity rather than the cost of correction. Understatement also distorts the tender comparison. A bid with a guessed allowance competes against a bid with a real one, and the client cannot see which is which from the total figure alone. The check is a cost-code structure that separates original work from correction work, with each defect assigned to a trade and a date. ## How do you detect the gap before you award the contract? Ask for three documents and read them together. First, a defect register from a completed project, with repair costs or hours against each item. Second, a method statement stating who pays for each class of repair: the contractor, a nominated subcontractor, or the client. Third, a schedule showing how the correction allowance was built. If the register and the schedule contradict each other, the tracking experience is thin. A quantity surveyor can cross-check the register against the final account of that job. A client without a surveyor can ask the contractor to walk them through one recent site in or near Burao and show the repair log for it. Ask the municipal engineer's office what records it holds for recent permitted works, and whether a defects inspection is part of its process. Fix the allowance and the payment mechanism in the contract, and check what the contract allows before holding any sum back. Ask for a defect register with repair hours attached, not a snag list. A snag list names problems; a register prices them. ## What to do next Before award, send each shortlisted bidder one written request: a defect register from a completed job and a method statement naming who pays for each repair class. Read both against the bid's correction allowance. Where the register is missing or the method statement is silent, ask the quantity surveyor to price the gap and put the figure in the tender comparison. Confirm the correction allowance and payment terms in the contract. ## Questions ### What is a defect register? A record of each defect found after completion: what it was, which trade fixed it, the hours and materials used, and whether the cost fell on the contractor or the client. A bidder with real tracking experience can show one from a completed job. ### How big should a correction allowance be in Burao? There is no standard figure. Ask the bidder to show how the allowance was built from repair records, and have the quantity surveyor check that build-up against the contract documents.