Claims management in the Egyptian industrial construction sector: a contractor's perspective

Purpose – This research aims at providing a better insight of the status of claims management in general, and change order claims in particular, from the contractor's perspective with respect to the Egyptian industrial construction sector, as they proved to be the main cause of claims in this sector.Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire survey discussing the most persistent issues of claims management in general, and change order claims in particular, was conducted on a selected sample of construction industrial companies.Findings – The results demonstrated that claims management in the Egyptian industrial sector has been suffering from a variety of obstacles, including lack of proper notification procedures in public contracts and poor documentation management. Change orders had been actually lost due to poor documentation. Oral change orders were present in approximately 76 per cent of the projects; half of which resulted in loss of rights due to improper documentation, which was largely attribu...