90% of construction disputes trace back to poorly drafted contracts and inadequate contract documentation. The risk was embedded long before the first milestone was missed or the first claim was filed.
Signing a contract feels decisive. It feels like protection. But in practice, the act of signing is often the moment the contractor stops reading. The document goes into a drawer, the project starts, and the contract only comes out again when something goes wrong.
By then, the exposure is already baked in. Ambiguous scope definitions that favour the employer. Risk allocation clauses that shift liability without the contractor realising. Notice requirements that create time bars the contractor will miss. Payment mechanisms that delay cash flow by design.
These are not edge cases. They are standard features of many contracts in the GCC construction market. And they are only dangerous if nobody reviews them before signing — or manages them after.
CALIM reviews contracts before they are signed, identifying the clauses that create exposure and recommending amendments that protect the contractor's position without derailing the commercial relationship. After signing, we manage the contract as a live instrument — tracking obligations, enforcing entitlements, and ensuring that the protections built into the contract are actually used.
Because a contract is only as strong as the discipline applied to managing it. And signing it is just the beginning.
Tins Varghese
Chief Commercial & Strategy Officer
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