488 The 1999 Books; Dispute Boards

The third area that was looked into by the Task Group, in trying to decipher howthey could best improve the FIDIC forms in use at the time, was to investigate anymatters that had been brought to the attention of FIDIC by users of the various formsand any commentaries that had been written on such forms.

The immediate result of the work carried out in updating the Fourth Edition of theRed Book was the introduction of the 1996 Supplement, as discussed earlier in Chapter19, which dealt with the problem of the role of the engineer. Subsequently, however,the group introduced a major change to the FIDIC contracts by the production of atotally new and different set of conditions of contract in September 1999, in the formof four new documents alongside those that have been in use at that time. The newsuite of FIDIC contracts comprises the following forms:

(a) The 1999 Red Book: The Construction Contract (Conditions of Contract for Buildingand Engineering Works, Designed by the Employer) – General Conditions, Guidancefor the Preparation of the Particular Conditions, Forms of Tender, Contract Agree-ment, and Dispute Adjudication Agreement;

(b) The 1999 Yellow Book: The Plant and Design-Build Contract (Conditions of Con-tract for Electrical and Mechanical Plant, and for Building and Engineering Works,Designed by the Contractor) – General Conditions, Guidance for the Preparationof the Particular Conditions, Forms of Tender, Contract Agreement and DisputeAdjudication Agreement; and

(c) The Silver Book: The EPC and Turnkey Contract (Conditions of Contract for EPCTurnkey Projects) – General Conditions, Guidance for the Preparation of the Par-ticular Conditions, Forms of Tender, Contract Agreement and Dispute AdjudicationAgreement.

(d) The Green Book: The Short Form of Contract – Agreement, General Conditions, Rulesfor Adjudication and Notes for Guidance.

Unlike the standard forms of contract published prior to September 1999, which weredistinguished from each other on the basis of the type of project for which they wereused, these new forms are distinguished on the basis of the allocation of the designfunction. As can be seen from the title of the 1999 Red and Yellow Books, the 1999 RedBook was drafted to be used for all types of building and engineering works designedby the employer (or designed on his behalf). The 1999 Yellow Book was designed tobe used for all types of building and engineering works designed by the contractor. Itis because of this new distinguishing characteristic that the 1999 Red and Yellow Bookswere not given a different colour, since FIDIC wished them to be identified by theirrespective allocation of the design function rather than by their colour. However, theexperience gained since their publication in 1999, and despite FIDIC’s wish, shows thatthese documents are found to be more easily identifiable in practice by their colourwith the added tag of ‘new’ and/or the year of publication.22.2

Another intention of FIDIC or of the Task Group that was not realised was that theuse of the Fourth Edition of the Red Book and the 1988 edition of the Yellow Bookwould diminish with time and that they would be phased out in favour of the newer1999 forms of contract. The Task Group had intended that any new projects that were

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