Construction development act: A millstone of Sri Lankan Construction industry - Part 1

This article will be provided a brief explanation of the Construction development act and it will comprise of 4 parts as follow. 

Part 1- Summary

Part 2 - Section i to iii of the Act

Part 3 - Section iv to v of the Act

Part 4 - Section vi to x

part 5 - Effect to Quantity Surveyors

Part 6 - Shortcoming of the Act and Summary

Part 1

Summary

Recently Sri Lanka Parliament has seconded the “Construction development act” which is applicable for all activities relating to the Sri Lankan construction industry and it can be considered as a milestone of the Sri Lankan Construction industry.

The Act has provision to formulate a National Policy on Construction through a National Advisory Council on Construction. The policy will implement through the “Construction Industry Development Authority” which also proposed to formulate through the Act. Members of the National Advisory Council and Construction Industry Development Authority will comprise professionals representing professional associations like IQSSL and IESL as well as top ranked government officers like Secretary to the Minister in charge of the subject of Construction.

Also the Act has proposed to impose a tax called as “Construction Industry Development Levy” and it will be collect as a percentage of construction cost of projects and it will be the main source of income to the “Construction industry development fund”. The fund will reserved for the benefit and development of construction industry and its stakeholders, for an example it will form insurance with pension benefits, for craftsmen.

The Authority will maintain a Register of qualified persons in different disciplines such as Quantity Surveying and Engineering in addition to the register of Contractors, Developers, Skilled Construction Workers, Construction Site Supervisor and etc.

Moreover the Act has imposed to use standard documents specified for the purpose by the Authority by qualified persons, contractors and etc.

Also it has proposed to use Mediation or conciliation/adjudication as dispute resolution mechanism for identified construction works respectively.

In addition to those the Act has established an appeal board to hear any appeal from any person who is aggrieved by decisions of the Authority.

The Act has vested power to the Authority to collect information from various organizations for the purpose of preparation and maintenance of a National Data Base of construction.

All physical and human resources of ICTAD will be offered to the Authority in order to smooth function of the aforementioned activities.

Next:  Part 2 - Section i to iii of the Act.