Subcontract procurement is where a contract strategy becomes a specific package of work. The boundaries of that package, including what the main contractor will provide, must be clear enough to price and administer.
Start with a complete package
Describing a subcontract as back-to-back does not establish what the subcontractor has priced or how its work will fit with the other packages. It describes an intended relationship with the main contract. The details still need to be agreed.
A useful package defines the work, documents, interfaces and conditions of delivery. It also identifies what the main contractor will provide. General incorporation of the main contract is not a substitute for checking whether the subcontractor’s offer covers the work needed on this project.
Compare the boundaries as well as the prices
Set tender returns alongside the same scope schedule. Resolve qualifications concerning design, temporary works, attendance, lifting, testing and making good. A lower price may reflect a different division of responsibility rather than a more competitive offer for the same work.
Take a services installation through a fire-rated wall. Someone must set out the penetration, form it, install the service, complete the fire stopping and provide the required evidence. If each package excludes the work immediately outside its trade, an important part of the installation can remain unallocated.
Record those decisions in the subcontract documents. An estimator’s comparison sheet is useful internally, but the site team needs an agreement that reflects the resolved boundaries.
Align obligations with the subcontractor’s work
Check which main-contract obligations are relevant and how they should apply. Whole-project responsibilities may be unsuitable for a specialist with control over only one package. The subcontractor also needs access to the documents that define its obligations.
Consider design submissions. A requirement to secure an approval by a fixed date may depend on information from another trade. Establish who provides that information, when it is due and how the subcontractor should respond if it is late. Passing down the deadline alone leaves the dependency unresolved.
Build enough time into notices and decisions
A main contractor may need information from a subcontractor before it can notify or assess an event under the main contract. Identical notice periods may leave no time to review that information and act on it.
Work backwards from the main-contract deadline. Allow for recognition on site, preparation, checking and issue. Then confirm that the subcontract procedure is both workable and consistent with the applicable law. The same exercise should cover quotations, design reviews, testing and completion submissions.
Give the site team a clear route for instructions. A supervisor coordinating access should know when a direction would change the subcontract work and who is authorised to issue it.
Assess payment and delay separately
Do not assume that a delay or deduction under the main contract can simply be passed to a subcontractor. Establish the relevant subcontract obligation, what happened, responsibility and the resulting effect. Several trades may have been working in the affected area.
Payment arrangements must also comply with the applicable statutory regime. In particular, do not treat the main contractor’s receipt of payment as a sufficient basis for withholding a subcontract payment. Check the local requirements rather than relying on a general flow-down clause.
Finish procurement before handing it to the site team
Before mobilisation, give the delivery team the executed subcontract, agreed scope, programme commitments and a record of the important qualifications. Explain the access and attendance commitments made during negotiation.
Keep a short list of interfaces requiring coordination and assign responsibility for each. The subcontract cannot organise those activities by itself. Good procurement leaves the team with defined obligations and practical arrangements for getting the work done.
