How do you check progress on a low Berbera bid?

A low bid in Berbera can be a bid with something missing. That makes progress measurement underbidding risks hard to see: the contractor reports a high percentage complete, the client pays against it, and the omitted item only appears when it is too late to price it properly. Measure work by verified quantity against the priced bill, not by the contractor's own summary.

What does a low bid leave out of the measurement?

An underpriced bid hides its gap in items that are easy to skip on paper: excavation and backfill, compaction layers, curing, formwork to edges, reinforcement laps and cover, testing, and the supervision time to check them. The percentage claimed each month can rise while those items stay undone, because nobody priced them in the first place.

Ask for the priced bill of quantities and walk the site against it, line by line, not against a summary sheet. Ask the contractor to show where each measured item sits in the bill. If an item appears in the specification but has no line in the bill, that is the gap. Ask how it will be measured and paid before the next claim. Confirm which site records exist on your own site, and require a measurement sheet that both sides sign and photograph, because a verbal agreement is hard to rely on later. Put that requirement in the contract so it does not depend on goodwill. Keep the specification and the drawing register on site so the check does not depend on memory.

How do you check overstated completion claims?

Measure the work yourself or through your engineer, then compare that figure with the claim. Overstated completion shows up as small gaps that repeat: the same wall measured twice, a pour claimed before it was placed, backfill claimed before compaction, or a percentage taken from a schedule rather than from the ground.

Use a simple method that suits the site. Divide the work into measurable units, such as cubic metres placed, square metres of formwork struck, metres of pipe laid and tested, or tonnes of reinforcement fixed and inspected. Record each unit with a date, a location and a photograph. Then compare the total with the claim. If the measured units do not support the claimed percentage, set out in writing which measured items cannot be verified, and ask the contract's payment and measurement clauses how the difference is handled. Ask the municipal engineer's office whether it holds inspection records for similar recent work in the area, then walk a recently finished building and look at how its edges, joints and finishes were handled.

Why does the gap grow as the job runs?

An underpriced item pulls money and labour into whatever is being measured, so the unmeasured work waits. The waiting work then blocks the trades behind it: finishes, waterproofing, drainage and services all depend on the structure and the levels being complete.

The gap grows fastest when payment follows a claimed percentage rather than a measured quantity. Fix the measurement first, then the programme. Agree at kickoff how each item will be measured, who signs it, and what evidence is needed, and put that in the minutes. Keep a running list of items that are specified but not yet measured, and review it at every site meeting. When a claim arrives, check the list before releasing anything. If the contract allows retention or a performance bond, check what it covers and how it is released; ask the contractor and your legal adviser to confirm the terms rather than assuming them. Confirm all technical limits and measurement methods against the project specification and your engineer.

What to do next

Take the priced bill of quantities and the specification, and walk the site with your engineer this week. Mark every specified item that has no measured quantity, photograph what you find, and write the list into the next site meeting minutes. Then agree the measurement method for each item before the next payment claim, and keep the signed sheets on file.