What are the responsibilities and obligations of engineering supervision?

I. What are the responsibilities and obligations of engineering supervision?

1) The engineering supervision unit shall obtain the corresponding level of qualification certificate in accordance with the law and undertake engineering supervision services within the scope permitted by its qualification level.

2) A project supervision unit that has an affiliation or other vested interest with the construction contractor of the supervised project, as well as with suppliers of construction materials, building components, and equipment, shall not undertake the supervision services for that construction project.

3) The engineering supervision unit shall, in accordance with laws, regulations, relevant technical standards, design documents, and construction project contracting agreements, exercise supervision over the construction quality on behalf of the project owner and assume supervisory responsibility for the construction quality.

4) The engineering supervision unit shall assign chief supervisors and supervisory engineers with the appropriate qualifications to the construction site. Construction materials, building components, and equipment shall not be used or installed on the project without the signature of the supervisory engineer. The construction unit shall not proceed to the next stage of work. Without the signature of the chief supervisor, the project owner shall neither disburse project funds nor carry out completion acceptance.

5) The supervising engineer shall, in accordance with the requirements of the engineering supervision specifications, carry out supervision over construction projects through methods such as on-site observation, routine inspections, and parallel testing.

II. What are the responsibilities and obligations of the construction entity?

Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects

Article 9: The construction entity bears significant responsibility for the quality and safety of construction projects. It shall be responsible for the coordinated management of quality and safety efforts at all stages of the construction project and, in accordance with the contractual agreements, shall supervise all participating entities to ensure that they fulfill their respective quality and safety management responsibilities.

Our city encourages construction entities to entrust project management units with the professional management and services for the entire lifecycle of construction projects.

Article 10: The project developer shall, during the feasibility study stage, conduct an assessment of quality and safety risks associated with the construction project and clearly specify the costs for controlling these risks. The quality and safety risks of the construction project include risks to the construction itself during both the construction and operation phases, as well as potential impacts on neighboring buildings, structures, and other pipelines and facilities. The specific methods for risk assessment shall be formulated separately by the municipal people's government.

The project developer shall provide the content of the risk assessment to the survey, design, construction, and supervision units, and require these relevant units to clearly specify corresponding risk prevention and control measures during the preparation of survey documents, design schemes, preliminary design documents, construction drawing design documents, and construction organization design documents.

Article 11: The project developer shall ensure that construction funds are commensurate with the project’s requirements and shall pay fees according to the prices and timelines stipulated in the contract. It is prohibited to arbitrarily reduce the fees for investigation, design, construction, supervision, testing, and monitoring services.

The construction entity shall, in accordance with the regulations, separately allocate funds for safety protection measures, supervision fees, inspection fees, and other related expenses into a dedicated account for the construction project.

Article 12: Before awarding a construction project, the project owner shall, based on the feasibility study report for the construction project and the standard durations for construction periods, comprehensively assess factors such as the project scale, construction techniques, geological conditions, and climatic conditions, and then determine reasonable durations for investigation, design, and construction. During the bidding process for construction projects, the project owner shall include the reasonable construction schedule as an essential requirement and condition in the tender documents.

Once the durations for investigation, design, and construction have been determined, the project owner shall not arbitrarily shorten them. If adjustments are indeed necessary and technically feasible, the project owner must submit technical measures and plans to ensure the quality and safety of the project; such adjustments may only be implemented after being reviewed and approved by experts. If adjusting the durations for investigation, design, and construction results in additional costs, the project owner shall provide adequate funding to cover these expenses.

Article 13: The project entity shall, in accordance with the law, award construction projects to entities possessing the appropriate qualification levels. It shall not divide up a construction project for separate awards nor designate subcontracting units.

The contracts signed between the construction entity and entities engaged in investigation, design, construction, supervision, testing, and monitoring shall clearly stipulate the quality and safety responsibilities of both parties with regard to the construction project.

As shown above, construction companies must possess legitimate qualifications; without such qualifications, they are not permitted to undertake engineering projects. Moreover, the engineering projects undertaken must be commensurate with the company’s qualifications. If a company’s qualifications are insufficient for a particular project, it is prohibited from carrying out the construction work.