In brief
- A low bid often leaves out the labour, plant or materials needed to hold the programme, and only the delay record shows it.
- A record that says only "waiting" proves nothing, so the client cannot say whether the delay belongs to the contractor or to the client's own decisions.
- Ask for daily records that name the task, the crew, the plant and the reason, and walk two recent sites before you sign anything.
Contents
A delay record hides underbidding risks in Borama when it logs only stalled days and not their cause. The low bid won because it left out labour, plant or materials, so the first rain, the first late approval or the first missing delivery stops the work. If the record never says which resource was missing, the client cannot see the gap until the final account.
What does a delay record need before it shows anything about underbidding?
A useful record ties each lost day to a task, a crew, a plant item and a cause the reader can check. A line that says "waiting for client" gives an adjudicator nothing to test.
The same principle applies to the baseline itself. Delay records underbidding risks in Borama appear when the programme assumes a concrete gang, a block crew, a water bowser and a supervisor that the priced bid never funded. A record like "blockwork stopped, 6 masons idle, no blocks on site, supplier not paid" points back to cash flow. "Blockwork stopped, 6 masons idle, water tanker did not arrive" points to plant or logistics. Both entries are testable against delivery notes, wage sheets and plant logs.
Ask the site team to write the record at the end of each shift, while the facts are fresh, and to note who attended. Ask for the daily record, the delivery note and the wage sheet for one sampled week, then check that the three agree. The municipal engineer's office can say what records it expects with permit files; the contract itself sets what the client may demand.
Which causes of lost time stay unclear in a site diary?
The causes that stay unclear are the ones written as moods, not mechanisms: "rain", "shortage", "slow approval", "problem with labour". A date, a task and a count turn each one into something a reader can weigh.
When rain interrupts external work, the unclear part is whether the contractor had the pump, the cover or the spare gang to return to work afterwards. A diary that says "rain, no work" for four days running says nothing about recovery. One that says "rain Tuesday, pit flooded, no pump on site, dewatering started Friday" shows that the plant allowance was thin.
Get the seasonal weather record for the site from the client or the relevant meteorological office, and read the programme against the actual rainy days. A general-practice programme can carry weather days; the record shows whether the bid carried them too.
Train the supervisor to separate the event from the response. Two columns: what happened, and what the crew did about it. Then ask one follow-up question on any entry that lacks a resource: which crew, which machine, which material, how many people stood idle. Where the answer is "none available", the bid may have priced the task without the resource to protect it. The municipal engineer's office can say whether it holds rainfall records for the plot.
How do you test the record against the priced bid?
Read the record backwards into the bill of quantities. Take each stalled task, find the rate or allowance that was supposed to fund it, and ask whether the resource was ever in the price.
Start with the items that fail first on thin bids: supervision, plant, water, formwork, curing and testing. If the diary shows a week of idle labour but the priced bid contains no supervision line beyond the owner, the record is describing an omitted cost. Compare two or three recent sites the client has walked, and ask what each crew did during a stall. Ask a laboratory what it charges to test concrete cubes or compaction, so the testing allowance has a real basis, and ask suppliers how they schedule deliveries on similar jobs so delivery gaps are not confused with price gaps.
Keep every question in writing. Where the contract links payment to progress or records, check what it allows before acting on a gap. The point of the exercise is not to score the contractor; it is to see whether the price can carry the programme.
What to do next
Before the next progress meeting, pull one week of daily records and match each entry to a delivery note, a wage sheet or a plant log. Mark every line that names no resource. Take those lines to the contractor and ask which crew, machine or material was missing, then write the answer into the record and keep the file in the payment correspondence.
Frequently asked questions
Can I refuse to pay for days lost to rain?
Check what the contract says about weather, extension of time and payment for standing time before you decide. The contract and the priced programme define how rain is treated, so ask the engineer named in the contract to rule on any disputed day.
What if the contractor keeps no daily records?
Ask for records as a condition of the next payment certificate only if the contract allows it. If it does not, start your own photographic diary with dates, tasks and crew counts, and raise the missing records in writing at each meeting so the gap is documented.
Where can I check local rates for plant and testing?
Ask two plant owners and one laboratory for written quotes on the specific items, such as a water bowser day rate or a concrete cube test. Keep the quotes with the tender file so later comparisons rest on documents rather than memory.
Local reporting: this article is written for building work in Borama and Somaliland. Ground conditions, prices and rules differ between places; confirm the details for your own site.