What's the difference between China supervision and foreign supervision?

since the country started the pilot project of construction supervision in 1988, it began to turn to the stage of all-round development in 1996. It has been 17 years since then, and the society has gradually got to know this system. However, the development of this system has been far away from the original intention of the country to implement the construction supervision system, and the road of development has become narrower and narrower, even gone into a misunderstanding. If the country cancels the current compulsory supervision on a large scale, the whole supervision industry will face the danger of survival. If not, Faced with this reality, the Ministry of Construction issued the document Jian Zi [24] No.2 on November 16, 24, requesting to try out the construction project management in various construction fields, expecting a new breakthrough in the project management system. But to a large extent, the wishful thinking of government departments in charge of project procurement is really the demand of the market, and can it really change the current status of project management? The author thinks that everything should be decided by the market. If the construction project management follows the footsteps of the construction supervision system, who can guarantee that the country will not implement another management method?

The construction project supervision that has gone astray

The construction supervision system has been controversial since its implementation. The focus is that the industry and all walks of life can't agree on many problems in this project management system. How to cultivate, develop and standardize construction supervision, the government, enterprises and the market have made different choices, which has led to the system with good subjective wishes gradually deviating from the market and entering the misunderstanding. The legitimate interests of engineering supervision enterprises are damaged, and the whole industry is living in a deformed environment. The practice of construction engineering supervision cannot be in line with international engineering management practices, and the road of supervision is unknown.

1. The concept of construction project supervision

The Code for Construction Project Supervision (GB329——2) defines construction project supervision as "the so-called construction project supervision, which refers to the project construction documents, construction project entrusted supervision contracts and other construction project contracts approved by the competent construction department by the supervision unit with corresponding qualifications entrusted by the project construction unit according to the relevant national laws and regulations on engineering construction. It includes engineering consultation in the early stage of construction, supervision and management in all stages including bidding, survey and design, construction acceptance and operation warranty in the later stage of construction. When the country introduced this system, it did not refer to the project management mode corresponding to a certain project procurement method. Theoretically, all the service activities provided by the supervision company entrusted by the owner are collectively referred to as supervision, which is part of the international Engineering consultation. Supervision engineers often compare themselves to the engineer in FIDIK contract conditions and the Consulting Engineer referred to in various contract arrangements. Most supervision engineers also understand this in practice, and there is no new concept because of the different contract arrangements. However, the society's understanding and cognition of supervision is far from that of the industry, and there is even a serious deviation. With the deepening of supervision practice, the industry also feels a serious shortage of theory and practice. This stems from the unscientific and unreasonable wording design of the construction supervision system when it was introduced. Because the word "supervision" is based on the management experience of Japanese project implementation stage, [1] the architect in Japanese construction contract is always called "supervision", that is, the architect Supervise and inspects the implementation of the project, and the English word for "supervision" is Supervisor, which means manager, inspector or supervisor, not supervisor. Because there is no definition in the contract, the construction contract in Japan is very different from that in the west. However, the teaching materials used for supervision training for many years all claim that supervision is not a supervisor, and his position is higher than that of the supervisor, who is the object of supervision. In fact, most on-site supervisors do the work of supervision, which is what most owners want, but they are not the supervisors of contractors, but the supervisors hired by the owners. In China, supervision Engineer is never translated into Supervisor Engineer, but it is emphasized that supervision engineer is an engineer or Consulting Engineer under FIDIK contract conditions. The confusion in theory has deepened the disagreement on the concept of supervision in the construction field. The government pays attention to and emphasizes quality supervision, which also limits the scope of professional services provided by supervision. In addition, most supervision units do not have the engineering consulting ability in the early stage of construction, and the feasibility study of the project belongs to the management of the planning department. For many reasons, the engineering supervision is limited to the project implementation stage, which makes the road of supervision narrower and narrower, and loses the space for development. This is caused by the confusion of system and government functions and poor guidance, no wonder the supervision unit. Too much emphasis on the national conditions, and no adjustment with the changes of the national conditions-the changes of the main components of the market and the functions of the government, makes the supervision unit neither replace the quality supervision institution nor become a quality evaluation institution with social credibility; It can neither develop into a consulting company that provides intellectual services for the decision-making and management of engineering construction projects by using the knowledge of modern science and technology, economic management, law and engineering technology, nor has the ability to provide pre-construction engineering consulting to Client. With the division of engineering cost and engineering consulting (investment) business, the original all-inclusive construction project supervision only has the content of quality supervision, and the construction supervision has undergone qualitative changes since its introduction. Therefore, [2] we have reason to think that it is urgent to strengthen the theoretical research on engineering consulting related majors, and study and discuss the principles, procedures, methods, organizations, business development, case analysis and development laws of engineering consulting, so as to promote the scientificity, effectiveness and standardization of engineering consulting industry and strive to improve the technical level of engineering consulting industry in China.

2, the government's leading role in engineering supervision

In China, the government strictly supervises the construction industry from macro to micro, and specifically, it stipulates the supervision behavior and methods of supervision engineers, and even makes routine inspections and sudden inspections on the projects under supervision. The intensity of administrative law enforcement is year after year, and more and more social resources are used, which shows that the supervision industry is made up of Excessive government intervention in specific micro-activities is unfavorable to the development of the industry. The management is not in place, the management should not be offside, the status quo has not changed, the effect is not great, and it cannot regulate the market order. For example, the "on-site supervision" system, which has been criticized by the industry, is a feature of China, which has been popularized by the government and has a corresponding legal status (Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects). As a form of supervision over construction quality in the construction stage, the state has forced the supervision units to implement it in the Code for Supervision of Construction Projects, Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects and Management Measures for Construction Supervision of Housing Construction Projects (Trial) (Ministry of Construction Jianshi [22] No.189), which is unfair to the market. The Administrative Measures for the Supervision of the Construction of Building Construction Projects (for Trial Implementation) stipulates the key parts and key procedures of the supervision of the construction of civil engineering, but it does not stipulate the key parts and key procedures of the supervision of the installation of mechanical and electrical equipment, which is biased and has caused errors in understanding. According to the author's experience, there is no problem with buildings and structures, which does not guarantee the safety and function of electromechanical engineering. In some projects, because the supervision engineer did not supervise the whole process of most electromechanical tests and debugging, he only paid attention to the results, resulting in the failure of safety and function after the project was put into use, or the function could not be played normally. Of course, there is also a market for on-site supervision, which most owners like and has its profound background. Most owners are uneasy about the contractor's construction quality, and they don't welcome the superficial supervision of the quality supervision station. Therefore, seeking social institutions for continuous supervision and management is the only way, and the emergence of supervisors is reasonable. It reflects the loss of contractor's integrity, the failure of government supervision and the imperfection of social credit system. The consequence of the government's strong intervention by administrative power is that the responsible subject of construction quality does not bear the quality responsibility, and the supervision engineer who has no subjective behavior ability bears disproportionate responsibility. Today's supervisors have become contractors' builders and quality inspectors. Some people may ask, supervision engineers have many powers, why not exercise them? May I ask, under the current legal and social environment in China, can the supervision engineer not start or even stop work because the contractor's site builders and quality inspectors are not on duty? It can't be done in most engineering projects at all, because many contractors' on-site quality inspectors are mostly nominal and can't be on duty, and the owner can "understand" this. In this case, the contractor, the owner and the supervisor become 2: 1. As a result, the supervisor has become a supervisor. Because he has to be on the sidelines, he has to supervise the whole construction process, and the supervisor has to act as the quality inspector of the contractor and even the builder. This is the reality. People can condemn the inaction of the supervisor, and the construction administrative department can punish him or even investigate the corresponding responsibility. However, no one cares about the inaction of the contractor and the chaos of the owner, and the law does not blame the "public". Is this fair and just? Isn't it putting the cart before the horse? We can see that the contractor's quality responsibility and management ability have been greatly weakened, because the government emphasizes the possible consequences of the inaction of the third party, and leaves the shortcomings of the responsible subject (such as lack of training for workers, more migrant workers, poor construction management, etc.) to the third party to make up for, while ignoring the responsibility of the responsible subject itself. At present, it is a trend to replace the contractor's on-site quality management with the on-site supervision of supervision units.

Supervisors are also required to supervise the legality of construction projects, and even report the "illegal behavior" of the owners to the construction administrative department, which is difficult for supervision engineers and supervision units. The construction supervision system includes two levels: government supervision and social supervision. The government supervision is mandatory and statutory, so the legality of construction projects should be entrusted to the government supervision, not to the social supervision. The supervision enterprise and the project owner are entrusted and have economic relations, that is, the owner is the employer of supervision. Under the current supervision situation of the project implementation stage, it is unrealistic to ask the supervision engineer to supervise the legality of the construction project. It is unreasonable and unreasonable to require the supervision engineer to report the owner's illegal behavior to the construction administrative department, which is equivalent to the fact that the service provided by the supervision engineer to the owner has become a supervision activity for the owner. The owner is the supervisor's parents and god, and it is impossible for the supervision engineer to report the owner's illegal behavior to the construction administrative department. In some government projects, the irregular behaviors of government departments have long been known to people, and government supervision can't correct and improve them. What is the reason for social supervision to supervise the legality of construction projects? The author has been engaged in supervision for ten years, and learned that many engineering projects didn't get the construction permit before they started, but the owners all greeted the relevant departments, and the relevant departments also recognized them. What's more, some engineering projects didn't get the construction permit until three or five months after the start of construction, but no one investigated the legal responsibility of the owners, and the construction permit was still issued. Can the supervision engineer refuse to provide supervision services during this period? The standard supervision contract does not stipulate that the owner can not provide services without handling the construction permit supervision. In this case, the supervision can supervise who is legal and who is illegal. The final result is that the supervision is inaction and the supervision is illegal. This is the reality. People know that the supervisor can't do it, but they still ask him to do it.

In recent years, more and more construction safety responsibilities have been transferred to the supervisor. It is like a mountain, which has overwhelmed the supervisor. Some requirements are too extreme. For example, if the supervisor is required to be on the safe side, it is fair for the government to push the things that it could not manage and could not manage well to the supervision enterprise, and the supervision enterprise will assume the responsibility without the safety supervision fee and free service. People see that there is a safety accident in the construction site, and there is no administrative and economic punishment for the safety supervision station, but the supervision unit and the supervision engineer are punished. The investigation of safety responsibility cannot be handled fairly, and the responsibility of the supervision unit is infinitely expanded. Supervision has become a low-income and high-risk profession. What the supervision engineer can do in the construction stage is to review the contractor's construction organization design (scheme) and safety measures. The supervision of safety is only inspection, supervision and promotion. He is not a producer of building products, who has always been responsible for safety, and the direct responsible person for on-site construction safety is the contractor. At present, the safety responsibility imposed on the supervision violates the Construction Law. The author learned from the engineering projects supervised by Hong Kong architects that although the architects check various safety measures and supervise and promote the contractor's safety work during the construction process, the architects do not bear the responsibility caused by safety accidents unless the architects give clear instructions to the contractor on safety-related matters. What we should do now in China is to establish a market mechanism and improve the legal system. For example, on the existing basis, government departments should make statistics on the safety accidents of contractors with corresponding qualifications every year, issue safety records confirmed by the government, and make them one of the records that contractors must provide when bidding. Relevant laws and regulations can also stipulate under what circumstances and for how long, contractors are not allowed to undertake projects of what scale, thus limiting bad contractors from entering the corresponding construction market, and a bad contractor will be eliminated by the market in the long run. Punishment measures should be fatal to contractors, which can touch their interests and ensure social fairness. A transparent game rule recognized by the society will be effective.

People have imposed too many additional functions on supervision, which go beyond its social attributes and self-ability, and also violate the principle of market transactions. Supervision bears too many things. Now, should it be unloaded and restored to its true colors?

3. Compulsory supervision

Due to the simple composition of investors, engineering projects in industrialized countries and regions are roughly divided into two types: public investment and private investment, and their construction project organization and implementation methods and contract forms are also different. Except for public investment projects, other projects are not subject to compulsory supervision by the government at the project implementation stage. In China, due to the diversification of investment subjects, the functions of the government in the planned economy have not been completely transformed, and the composition of investment subjects is still complicated in recent years. Therefore, the government has stipulated the engineering projects that must be supervised on a large scale. Not only that, but in some places, for various reasons, the scope of supervision is getting bigger and bigger, and the fees for supervision are getting lower and lower. What causes market distortion or distortion? The supervision market in Hangzhou has been specially investigated. [3] A large number of owners (accounting for 31.7% of the surveyed number) do not agree with the government's compulsory supervision. In fact, the situation in the whole country is mostly the same. Even if the supervision project has been implemented, many owners have their own team to manage the project, which is called "supervision supervision of supervision". The background of this situation is that the supervision unit must be filled in for the current construction permit, otherwise the construction administrative department will not issue the construction permit; When applying for the pre-sale permit of commercial housing, the supervision unit also needs to issue a photo.