Administration of agreements starts with a good "system" of filing and organized follow up procedures. Without these two necessities already in place, the administrator will be scrambling to catch up, miss critical events, appear busier than he/she really is, and in the final review will be inefficient.

  Let's start with the scheduling or "diary".  At the commencement of the contract, the administrator must schedule each and every contract event. As new items appear, they must be noted in this schedule. Normally, there should be at least two current complete schedules, just in case one is destroyed. Never store both n the same place.

  A schedule can be as simple as a calendar with the event noted on the appropriate date. But it can and should be a computer program that indicates the daily tasks, as well as references back to the appropriate section of the agreement. This schedule must be reviewed each day, and the appropriate follow up conducted timely. As problems occur, they should be noted in an Occurrence File, while die date(s) for correction or follow up are added to the schedule.

  The Occurrence File is a systematic collection of all inspections, events observed, notes, change orders or amendments, and what action was taken. It is normally in a chronological format, with references back and forth between incident, remedy or follow up.

  Please note that the administrator oversees agreements, whereas the contract manager or construction manager is actually involved in the project ostensibly to make sure the project is completed properly and expediently. Administrators may or may not have been involved in the wording of the agreement, but do have a duty to see that both/all parties live up to the written terms and conditions of the agreement. Normally a Contract Administrator is hired by one (each) of the parties, and can be slightly biased toward his employer's point of view.

  Purchasing officials, or their staff, normally become administrators of service type contracts, such as maintenance, warranty, janitorial services, and copying or printing.

  Each project needs a Contract File with a copy of the original agreement and all modifications indexed and tabbed. A duplicate should be available to the Administrator, and can and should be the Administrator's "Official File". These two files need to be compared on a regular basis, and all differences rectified.

  In order to send out status reports and correction notices, the Administrator must have a complete list of all participants that includes the name/entity, address, fax number, phone number, cell phone number, and e-mail address. Be sure to also get street addresses (as opposed to post office box numbers), as most overnight mail cannot be delivered to a post office box.

  Boilerplate letters are a necessity for expediency, and in the earlier years could have been fill-in-the blank type of forms. Today, the Administrator should fill in the blanks on the computer screen and print out a formal document. All correspondence, especially correction notices, must be done timely and currently in order to be effective, and should be in writing via certified mail.

  As the project comes to a close, the Administrator must be examining warranties and operating manuals. Especially to set the dates for commencement and termination of the warranty, final inspection, pre-expiration inspection, and corrective action inspection.

  Lastly, the Contract Administrator must prepare for closing out the project by suspending the Project File for closing, which includes removing the file to the warehouse and its subsequent destruction. Many times, these dates can be noted on the main file folder, but some other method will have to trigger these files out of the file cabinet at the appropriate time. The suspense system is helpful for that process.

  There are good computer-generated suspense or diary systems, but manual systems may suffice. When a date is triggered, a notice goes to the assigned Administrator, the file is pulled and the appropriate action is taken.

  While the above is only a quick summary of Contract Administration, we also offer an all day seminar for the professionals that includes specific instructions with forms and sample documents.

© 1997 by Donald L. Woods, All Rights Reserved