Some contractors plan to complete the works ahead of the contractual completion date, with the intention of releasing resources, capturing performance bonuses or simply demobilising early to reduce running costs. When an employer-risk event consumes that early completion margin, the contractor may seek compensation for the cost of the delay even though the contractual completion date is not exceeded. Core Principle 13 of the SCL Delay and Disruption Protocol addresses this scenario.
The Protocol's position is that a contractor may be entitled to compensation for delay to its planned early completion date where two conditions are satisfied. First, the contractor must have intended to finish early at the time of contract formation, and that intention must have been communicated to the employer through an accepted programme or other contractual mechanism. Second, the delay must be caused by an employer-risk event for which compensation is recoverable under the contract.
Both conditions are evidentially demanding. A planned early completion that appears only in the contractor's internal documents, or that emerges for the first time in the claim narrative, is unlikely to succeed. Tribunals in the Middle East have been generally cautious about early completion claims, particularly where the contractual programme reflects the contract completion date rather than an earlier date.
Where the conditions are met, the recoverable cost is the additional cost incurred as a result of the delay to the planned early completion — typically prolongation cost for the period between the original planned completion date and the actual completion date (subject to compensability). The contractor is not entitled to recover the value of any bonus that would have been earned by early completion unless the contract specifically provides for it.
A delay expert witness instructed on an early completion claim will need to analyse not only the cause and effect of the delay events but also the genuineness of the contractor's planned early completion. This typically involves reviewing the contractor's tender programme, internal planning documents, resource histograms and correspondence with the employer.
Early completion claims remain a niche but important category in Middle Eastern construction disputes. They are most likely to succeed on projects where the contract expressly contemplates early completion, where the contractor has consistently maintained an accepted early-finish programme, and where the records clearly link the employer's acts to the loss of that early completion margin.