What are the quality management risks of the general contractor?

The definition of risk management audit in the specific standards of internal audit is: "Risk management is the process of identifying and evaluating various uncertain events that affect the realization of organizational goals, and taking countermeasures to control their impact within an acceptable range." According to this definition, we should identify and evaluate all kinds of uncertain matters that affect the realization of organizational goals through internal audit, and take countermeasures to reduce or eliminate the risks of enterprise management and operation. At present, the general contracting of construction projects (hereinafter referred to as general contracting) involves many subjects, many single projects and complex economic activities. If the management is not good or the parties do not fully perform their contractual obligations or have wrong behaviors, there will be risks or potential risks. Moreover, in recent years, compensation or claims for construction general contracting contracts have occurred from time to time, and even some enterprises have undertaken a large number of civil compensation liabilities for this. It is not uncommon for some responsible persons to be investigated by criminal law because of their out-of-control management, which leads to duty crimes. In this regard, an important aspect of enterprise risk management-the risk management of construction project general contract has become an unavoidable new topic in front of internal audit. In order to do a good job in the risk management audit of the general contracting contract of construction projects, according to the internal audit practice, the main audit contents of the risk management of the general contracting contract of construction projects are as follows:

I. Determination of the subject of contract audit

The main body of the general contract for construction projects refers to the parties who have the right to perform their obligations for the whole or individual projects of the general contract according to the contract. The general contract generally includes the employer, the general contractor and the subcontractor. According to the needs, in some general contracting contracts, the employer and the contractor are one or both parties, and the qualifications of all parties involved in the general contracting contract should be identified during the audit.

In the audit of subject qualification, the qualification grade, credit grade and financial status of subject qualification should be audited according to the engineering projects undertaken by each subject. During the audit, the information that the employer should identify mainly includes: the employer's unit name, project approval number, project location, project content and source of funds. The general contractor and subcontractor shall specify the following information: unit name, qualification grade, registered capital, financial status or financing situation, etc.

Through the audit of the main body of the general contracting contract, the qualification of the main body, the authenticity and legality of the qualification and the validity of relevant documents can be determined.

Second, the construction project general contracting contract, time limit for a project audit

The subject matter of a general contract refers to what the rights and obligations of the parties point to, generally expressed in quantity, and some technical projects also include technical performance. Due to the variability of the construction scale, investment and target quantity of the general contracting contract, it will inevitably change with the changed agreement. Therefore, auditors should collect and sort out the contract documents related to the subject matter of the contract and confirm them through verification and calculation.

The construction period depends on the progress of the project. However, some general contracting contracts are inconsistent with the actual completion time limit, which leads to their time limit being in a pending state. Therefore, when determining the construction period, the construction period agreed in the contract should generally be considered together with the actual completion period or the time when the Employer fails to reply and accept the completion acceptance report submitted by the general contractor. According to the practice, we should grasp the following points: ① When the construction period agreed in the contract is consistent with the actual completion acceptance, the construction period should be confirmed according to the agreed time; (2) When the time limit agreed in the contract is inconsistent with the actual completion time limit, the change time limit agreed by both parties shall prevail for confirmation; (3) According to the contract, the general contractor has fully performed the contract and submitted the completion acceptance report to the employer. If the employer fails to organize the acceptance within the time limit without justifiable reasons or without the consent of the general contractor, the construction period shall be confirmed according to the time limit for overdue acceptance by the employer. At the same time, when determining the construction period, we should pay attention to the starting time, the change of construction period and the liability for breach of contract. Through the audit, the accuracy of the contract objectives and time limit for a project and the confirmation or handling of the fault party's liability for breach of contract after the project is overdue are clarified.

Three, equipment and materials bidding audit.

Article 3 of the Bidding Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates that the following three types of engineering construction projects, including engineering survey, design, construction, supervision and procurement of important equipment and materials related to engineering construction, must be subject to bidding: first, large-scale infrastructure, public utilities and other projects related to social interests and public safety; Second, projects that use all or part of state-owned funds or state financing investment; Third, projects that use loans and aid funds from international organizations or foreign governments. Or other projects that must be subject to tender as stipulated by laws and the State Council, and "review the soundness and effectiveness of the internal control system and risk management of the unit" in the Provisions of the National Audit Office on Internal Audit. Risk management audit shall be conducted for all equipment and materials set in construction projects that meet the above requirements. The contents of the audit mainly include: bidder, bidding time, equipment name, specification, unit price, quantity and amount.

In view of the fact that some general contracting contracts involve outsourced equipment and materials, the supplier, name, specification, quantity, unit price, amount, delivery place, acceptance time and its liability for breach of contract should be audited.

Verify the authenticity and legality of the bidding of the above equipment and materials through auditing, and verify the accuracy of the calculation of engineering quantity.

Four, processing project work results audit.

The results of the processing work include the contents of project design and technical data. Because some equipment and materials in some general contracting contracts are non-standard, it requires the general contractor (contractor or subcontractor) to design and provide technical information according to the contract. The contractor completes the work and delivers the work results according to the requirements of the ordering party, and the general contractor (ordering party) pays the remuneration. When the ordering party is audited, the name of the design document, the time of providing the design document, the name, specification, unit price, amount, contract price, adjustment price, confirmation price, acceptance time, penalty ratio and amount of the material are mainly audited. When auditing the contractor, the time and content of the notice that the ordering party found the design documents and technical data unreasonable, the content and time to urge the ordering party to assist in performance, the time and quality of the results, or the ordering party's late delivery, the name of the contractor who kept the results, the value of the results, the amount of compensation caused by the improper storage of the results and data by the ordering party, and the time to terminate the contract should be audited.

In addition to the above audit, the contractor's name, qualification, project name, specification, quantity, quality, unit price, amount, delivery place, acceptance time, liability for breach of contract, project payment, etc. shall also be audited. This key point is to attach importance to the appraisal and audit of the performance of the parties, as well as the authenticity and legitimacy of the contract processing results.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) project completion acceptance audit.

Project completion acceptance refers to an activity that the employer (construction unit) and the general contractor (subcontractor) accept and deliver the whole project or single project according to the contract or legal provisions. Article 279 of the Contract Law of People's Republic of China (PRC) stipulates: "After the completion of a construction project, the employer shall make timely acceptance according to the construction drawings and specifications, construction acceptance specifications and quality standards promulgated by the state. If the acceptance is qualified, the employer shall pay the price as agreed and accept the construction project. " "Those that have not been accepted or failed to pass the acceptance shall not be delivered for use." This is clearly stipulated in the general contract. For some specific housing construction and municipal infrastructure projects, the relevant departments also have provisions for acceptance and filing. For example, on April 7, 2000, the Ministry of Construction issued the Interim Measures for the Administration of Completion Acceptance and Filing of Housing Construction Projects and Municipal Infrastructure Projects, which stipulated that the construction unit should file a record with the construction administrative department of the local people's government at or above the county level where the project is located within 15 days after the completion acceptance of the project. For projects that have not been used within the time limit or the construction unit decides to reorganize the completion acceptance by the filing authority, the filing authority shall order them to stop using and impose a fine of 2% of the project contract price before reorganizing the completion acceptance. Therefore, we should pay close attention to this audit.

According to the audit practice, some general contracting projects have a clear agreement on completion acceptance. Some also stipulate that the general contractor shall submit the completion acceptance report and relevant documents and materials to the employer (contractor) in accordance with the contract when the contracted project is completed. There is also a general contract agreement that the employer (the builder) will organize the acceptance within a certain period of time after receiving the acceptance report submitted by it. Failing to organize acceptance within the time limit, or putting it into use without acceptance, shall be regarded as completion acceptance. This situation is more common in general contracting contracts. Therefore, in the acceptance audit of general contracting projects, the project name, completion time, acceptance, non-acceptance, acceptance criteria and project warranty should be audited.

If there is any violation of the above provisions or contractual stipulations, auditors should prompt or disclose them in the audit report, so as to attract the attention or correction of enterprise managers and avoid risks.

Six, the project quality audit

General contracting project quality refers to the project quality inspection activities carried out by the employer to the general contractor or the contractor to the subcontractor according to the standards as agreed in the contract. Inspection standards can be divided into national standards, industry standards and contract standards. Quality inspection standards should be mastered from the following three aspects: First, there are agreed standards. Second, if there is no agreed standard, it shall be implemented according to the standards stipulated by the state. Third, there is no national standard, according to industry standards. When auditing the project quality, the auditor shall audit the project name, inspection standard document number or inspection basis, quality identification and unqualified reasons.

VII. Audit of Project Revenue and Expenditure

The audit of general contracting project funds revenue and expenditure is the activity of auditors to verify the contractor's project funds revenue and expenditure. The project price generally includes: ① design fee, material fee and construction personnel fee of civil engineering. (2) Equipment cost, installation and debugging cost; (3) The management fee of the contractor, that is, the price paid by the general contractor for the management of the construction project by the employer. If there is an agreement between the two parties in the general contract, this fee should be included. (4) Quality bond means that the employer will withhold a certain percentage of the price from the general contractor's project payment, and the general contractor will pay it to the general contractor according to the project quality as agreed in the contract. There are also some general contractors who, according to the contract, pay a certain amount of money to the employer as a quality guarantee when the contract comes into effect, and the employer will return the money after all contractual obligations are fulfilled. However, due to the difference in the composition of some project prices, auditors should account according to the facts.

After the project price is determined, the general contractor shall account for the project price paid by the employer or the general contractor to the subcontractor one by one. At the same time, it is also necessary to verify the bills of both parties. This is because some construction projects are postponed or stopped, resulting in inadequate settlement, or some project funds have the phenomenon that one party pays first and then receives the invoice, or one party issues the invoice first and then receives the payment, or one party temporarily takes the receipt as the receipt, and then issues the invoice after the project is completed and settled, resulting in a shortage of bills or invalid vouchers, which affects the timely transfer of reconstruction projects to fixed assets. Therefore, auditors cannot ignore the audit of bills. The specific audit of project fund receipt and payment should be carried out from the payer and payee, unit name, amount, date, method, overdue payment time and amount, bill type and so on.

Eight, the general contracting contract dispute audit

The dispute settlement of audit general contracting contract refers to the objection of the parties to the construction project to the performance of the rights and obligations in the contract. General contracting contracts often involve subjective laws such as employers, general contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. In addition, due to the subjective and objective reasons of one party or all parties, the wrong party violated the general contract and caused the other party to suffer economic losses. The observant party claims to be liable for civil compensation to the faulty party according to the law or the contract, but it has not been compensated, or the result of the dispute between the two parties is pending. There are generally three ways to solve these disputes. First of all, the two sides resolved through consultation. Second, according to the arbitration clause in the general contracting contract or the arbitration agreement reached by both parties, the parties apply to the arbitration institution for arbitration. Third, one party brings a lawsuit to the people's court according to law. These methods are very common in dealing with general contract disputes. Therefore, in the audit, auditors should pay attention to the contract disputes that the parties have handled or will apply for arbitration and prosecution, because the payment of these disputes is not only related to the subject matter of the contract and the amount of project funds, but also related to the risk management of the parties. Therefore, the audit of dispute settlement of general contracting contract is also a content that cannot be ignored.

Nine, the general contracting contract management internal control system audit

The audit of internal control system of general contracting contract management refers to the evaluation of the integrity and effectiveness of risk management norms formed by auditors who accept the existence or potential existence that affects the realization of organizational goals or try to take measures to eliminate, reduce or transfer various uncertain factors during the performance of general contracting contracts. Due to the diversity, multi-subjectivity, unequal risk sharing, sudden occurrence of risks and dynamic management, the formation of internal control system of risk management can be divided into written or unwritten. Therefore, in the audit of risk internal control system, while paying attention to the collection and inspection of written system, auditors cannot ignore the unwritten system formed in actual work. When evaluating the effect of risk management, we should investigate and analyze the integrity of internal control system, the timeliness of implementation and the effectiveness of supervision. Make an objective, true and fair evaluation of the effect of risk management.

On the basis of obtaining all kinds of information and evaluation of the above-mentioned internal control system of risk management, auditors should put forward risk monitoring reports and early warning suggestions to the unit manager (department) in written or oral form according to the existing or potential different stages of risk management or contract performance, so that the manager can take timely measures to control risks, reduce losses and prevent risks from expanding.

To sum up, there are many uncertainties in the general contracting contract, and some parties to the general contracting contract have paid the price of civil liability compensation. Or some are investigated for criminal responsibility because they are included in the criminal law. In order to improve the risk management ability of all parties to the general contract, at present, the general contract of construction project has become a risk management concern that can not be ignored by all parties to the general contract. The contents of the risk management audit of the general contracting contract of construction projects discussed in this paper can be adopted or selected according to the specific conditions of both parties to the general contracting contract. By auditing the risk management of the general contracting contract according to the above contents, it is helpful for the parties to understand the performance, distinguish the responsibilities, take measures against the weak links or faults, and reduce the losses. Is conducive to the loss of the parties to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests. So as to reduce and avoid the management risks of both parties to the general contracting contract and improve the risk management ability of the general contracting project.