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The barrister and arbitrator questioned the ODA鈥檚 use of the NEC family of contracts for the 2012 build programme. Bingham refuted the notion that the NEC prevents disputes. He said: 鈥淭here are disputes on it because I deal with them all the time鈥�. Speaking of NEC 2, he said: 鈥淚t is an unpopular document. Builders just don鈥檛 understand it. It is a mystery to the industry, although the man who wrote it was brilliant.鈥� He said he hoped the NEC 3, the ODA鈥檚 chosen document, was 鈥渁 damn sight better鈥�.

At last week鈥檚 RICS Legal Issues in Construction 2006 conference, Bingham also criticised the ODA鈥檚 emphasis on the 鈥減artnering鈥� approach. 鈥淧artnering works beautifully as long as the contractors do as they are told. When the chips are down, partnering is well and truly dumped because (the parties) are all at one another鈥檚 throats.鈥�

Bingham warned against design work continuing once building got underway. He called on the ODA to adopt a policy of 鈥渄elivering on time with a profit鈥� and added that money could not be made out of variations and disputes. 鈥淭he key to making a profit is to price the job and get on with it. The curse of the industry is the variation.鈥�

Don鈥檛 forget the chippies and plasterers. They are not mentioned in the ODA manifesto

Tony Bingham

Bingham called for the ODA to pay more attention to subcontractors: 鈥淒on鈥檛 forget the chippies and plasterers. They are not mentioned in the ODA manifesto... More important than any contract is that you have got the blokes on site.鈥�

David Higgins, chief executive of the ODA, recently defended the use of the NEC in an interview with QS News. He said: 鈥淲e are using a modified version of NEC 3 for the delivery partner contract. It was seen as the best existing contract. Its entire structure is driven around openness and transparency... The key thing about the NEC is that it can be terminated and we can vary its scope.鈥�

A survey on the QS News website found that 87% of our readers thought the NEC was the wrong contract for the Olympics.