EPC project general contracting is a project management model that has been vigorously promoted in the field of construction engineering in recent years. In this mode, the contractor is entrusted by the owner to undertake the whole process or several stages of project investigation, design, procurement, construction and trial operation (completion acceptance). , and has great autonomy and management authority, which is conducive to the deep integration of different construction links, so as to achieve the management objectives of efficient use of various construction resources, shortening the construction period, controlling and reducing construction costs.
Of course, the general contractor of EPC project should be fully responsible for the quality, safety, construction period and cost of the contracted project while undertaking the construction links such as design, procurement and construction, which objectively requires the contractor to have higher technology, talents and overall management ability; On the other hand, contractors are also required to pay attention to project risk management and effectively prevent and transfer all kinds of project construction risks by taking out project insurance.
1, early insurance design
As far as project risk management is concerned, all kinds of risk dispersion and transfer schemes, including engineering insurance, have started as early as the project decision-making stage, and are initially presented in the project bidding documents according to the corresponding requirements of the owner for project risk protection. This is also the beginning of the EPC project general contractor's formal project insurance management in the whole process of EPC project. The specific management contents mainly include the types of projects that must be insured, the determination of the insured and the co-beneficiaries, and the design of corresponding insurance clauses involving the interests of contractors.
engineering insurance
From the perspective of the project's own risk protection needs, the types of engineering insurance that must be insured can be mainly divided into: property insurance, quality insurance, safety production insurance and liability compensation insurance. According to their different risk protection requirements and the relevant policies of the country (region), the owner and the contractor jointly determine the specific project types to be insured for this project.
1
Property insurance mainly involves all risks of construction engineering, all risks of installation engineering and all kinds of machinery and equipment insurance, which can basically cover the risk protection needs that may cause direct property losses to the owner and EPC general contractor during construction. In particular, all risks of construction projects and all risks of installation projects are relatively mature in market recognition and application in the field of domestic construction projects, and are almost compulsory insurance for major projects.
2
At present, quality assurance insurance mainly refers to IDI engineering quality potential defect insurance, which is a kind of engineering quality insurance introduced in recent years to deal with the quality risks of potential defects caused by process, materials and technology in the engineering construction field. The longest insurance period can reach 10 year, and the insurance scope includes the main structure of the building, waterproof and thermal insulation works, which can effectively solve the related quality responsibility problems of the building after the defect liability period. In the pilot area of IDI project quality potential defect insurance, this kind of insurance has mandatory characteristics.
three
Safety production insurance mainly involves three types: safety production liability insurance, construction accident insurance and employer liability insurance. Among them, production safety liability insurance is a brand-new production safety insurance promoted by the state in recent years, which combines the advantages and characteristics of construction accident insurance and employer liability insurance, and optimizes and innovates it. Safety production liability insurance not only plays a comprehensive role in risk protection, but also plays an effective role in accident prevention, which is of great value to the safety production management of EPC projects. In addition, production safety liability insurance has the characteristics of compulsory insurance in the policy pilot areas.
four
Liability insurance, here mainly refers to the third party liability insurance. At present, it mainly appears in the form of additional risks such as all risks of construction engineering, all risks of installation engineering and all kinds of machinery and equipment insurance, which can effectively deal with personal and property losses caused by various accidents to third parties.
In addition to the above four kinds of engineering insurance, EPC general contractor should also fully consider the rational use of engineering insurance to optimize project management in the early insurance design, such as purchasing engineering guarantee insurance instead of paying the corresponding engineering deposit, so as to reduce the occupation of enterprise funds.
Insured and co-beneficiary
First of all, in the bidding stage, the EPC project general contractor should not only negotiate with the owner about which types of projects to insure, but also clarify the insured personnel of various types of insurance, which is directly related to the contractor's bidding quotation.
Secondly, in terms of beneficiary setting, the insurance beneficiaries of general construction engineering all risks or installation engineering all risks include both owners and contractors, and they allocate insurance claims according to the responsibility sharing. Therefore, if the EPC project is handled by the owner in a unified way, it is obviously unreasonable that the insurance beneficiary is only specified as the owner. EPC project contractors should pay attention to the specific insurance content management.
Another example is the setting of deductible. For example, if the contract documents stipulate that the owner is responsible for the insurance of the corresponding project type, but the insurance deductible is set high, and the loss risk corresponding to the deductible is mainly borne by the contractor, then the contractor may require the owner to adjust the insurance clauses to reduce his risk loss in the corresponding accident by reducing the deductible.
2. Late insurance management
As an important means of risk management, the corresponding management after insurance directly affects whether the insured can achieve the initial risk protection goal, that is, whether the owner or EPC general contractor can successfully obtain insurance claims, or whether the corresponding accident prevention technology can play an effective role. There are two main aspects of insurance management, namely, paying attention to claims management after insurance and cooperating with risk management services.
Pay attention to claim management after insurance.
The management of engineering insurance claims has an important influence on whether all kinds of engineering insurance can be exerted, or how much actual claims can be exerted. Due to the serious information asymmetry between the insured and the insurer for a long time, in order to prevent moral hazard and reduce their own losses, the insurance company's claims process and requirements are often very strict. Such as whether to report the case in time, whether to call the police, whether to take corresponding accident impairment, whether to provide all kinds of claims materials, etc. It directly affects whether the insurance company claims or ultimately bears the liability for compensation.
At the same time, the contractor is naturally in a weak position in the understanding and application of insurance contract terms such as insurance liability, exclusion liability and deductible. Some insurance claims that should be borne by the insurer are often lifted by reasons such as "exclusion liability" and "deductible". This objectively requires the EPC general contractor to pay attention to the post-guarantee management of engineering insurance, and designate a special person or department to manage the post-guarantee claims, so as to truly realize the insurance guarantee function of various engineering types. The post-insurance manager's work mainly includes two aspects, namely, the study of insurance clauses before the risk accident and the settlement of claims after the risk accident.
Cooperation with risk management services
Quality and safety risk management refers to the risk management service of engineering quality or safety production management provided by insurance institutions for insurance projects through their own risk management or with the help of third-party quality and safety risk management service institutions according to insurance contracts. The types of projects involved mainly include IDI project quality potential defect insurance (project quality risk management service) and safety production liability insurance (safety production risk management service).
At present, the risk management services of these two types of insurance are mainly provided by third-party professional risk management institutions, whose work often involves the work norms, standards and quality and safety responsibilities of corresponding engineering construction activities. Therefore, in the implementation of the corresponding quality and safety risk management services, there will often be uncoordinated work or other resistance from the construction unit, supervision unit and design unit, which will seriously affect the implementation quality of specific risk management services.
EPC project general contractor should pay special attention to the corresponding insurance risk management services, cooperate with risk management service agencies to complete the corresponding tests and inspections, and solve the corresponding project quality or safety production risks through their risk suggestions during the project management process of insuring IDI project quality potential defect insurance or safety production liability insurance.