P.W.D.

Form of Contract 203 (2007)

P.W.D Form of Contract 203/203A (Revised 2007)
These are the traditional forms of contract based on drawings and specification (203) or
bills of quantities (203A) produced for use in public sector or government projects in
both building and civil engineering contracts. Generally it can be said that a majority of
the risks have been transferred to the contractor under these standard forms of contract
and this remains true with the 2007 version.
Although the forms are considered biased in favour of the Government it ie evident that
the Government have been on the losing side in a number of legal and contractual
disputes. The standard form is generally used in conjunction with the accompanying
standard administrative forms which have been produced specifically for use with the
contract forms and in many instances enhance the obligations contained within the
conditions of contract.
Generally the Contractor is allowed to claim for extensions to the contract period for
various circumstances deemed the Governments risks, but generally not for loss and
expense as a result of such. One other oddity is the fact that no retention money is
withheld from payments. A contractor whose employment is terminated will be
blacklisted from undertaking future Government projects and there is no provision for the
contractor determining his own employment with the Government.
It is not uncommon for these standard forms to be adopted and used in private sector
projects with amendments made to reflect the change in Employer.
It should be noted that although the PWD forms of contract are used extensively on
nearly all government projects there are some exceptions such as projects which receive
funding from the World Bank or Asian Development Bank which adopt variants of the
FIDIC Forms of Contract.

PAM 2006

PAM 2006 Standard Form of Building Contract

The Malaysian Institute of Architects (Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia PAM) form of
contract for building works are by far the most often adopted standard forms of contract
used for building works in the Malaysian private sector. PAM 2006 is the third generation
of the PAM standard form has been adapted greatly from the first generation version
known as PAM 1969. The first edition was for practical purposes a lightly amended
version of the JCT 1963 standard form of building contract. PAM 2006 comes in two
versions, with quantities and without quantities and it was launched on April 2007. The
latest edition has received mixed reviews from the industry. Many consider it still to
remain cluttered with deficiencies and glaring omissions which many construction and
legal practitioners still consider difficult to comprehend and appear to have been carried
through from earlier editions.
Depending upon the your point of view you will either consider the latest edition of this
form to be more balanced in respect of risk allocation or pro-contractor in comparison
with earlier editions such as the second generation PAM 1998 version. There is now
provision of elements of contractors design in this latest version which also places greater
time constraints on both the contract administrator and contractor in the administration of
the contract.