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There is a bit of a row brewing about which forms of contract shall be used for the building works for the Olympics. An awful lot of people pretend to love the NEC thingy. But if you are a plasterer keen to plaster a bit of stadium, well, as an old friend of mine once said in the witness box, 鈥渉e would say that wouldn鈥檛 he鈥�.

A lot of people know an awful lot more about the JCT animal. All I know is that an awful lot of disputes get disputed under all sorts of forms of contract. And I know something else as well; I don鈥檛 think it matters one jot, one smidgen, which forms of contract are used. Hardly anyone actually runs the building works according to the damned form of contract anyway.

The work on the building site is carried out, and on the Olympics will be carried out, by myriad small and medium-size companies. The blokes only want to know on each job when the work is to start and finish. The blokes will shout and scream if they are disrupted, sent away, held up. If sent away, they will find a job elsewhere and then it is one helluva task to get them back.

Next, the ordinary floorer, or plasterer of roofer or whatever, will expect changes 鈥� variations, alterations. Heaven knows that this will happen whether the contract document is green, blue, indigo or even made in heaven. The type of form makes no odds at all. Next the putter-upperer wants to be paid. No fancy form or document changes that notion. And you and I know that if you don鈥檛 pay the putter-upperer company on time and by a fair amount, he will cause you one awful headache. Why? Because he won鈥檛 pay his blokes. You can鈥檛 not pay the account and expect wonderful service, nor do you deserve it. And by the way, if the main contractor hangs out his subbies for cash, who do you think suffers most? The employer, of course. And if you don鈥檛 know why, you don鈥檛 know anything about life in building.

When it comes to the programme and progress, for goodness sake don鈥檛 have legal waffle about fixing or refixing dates for the umpteenth time

Go further, the guy from the outfit doing the work on a building site knows he is in a risk game every day. His fervent hope is to come through unscathed. He doesn鈥檛 go looking for trouble. In fact the truth is he will 鈥渇it in鈥� with the daily twists and turns of an unfolding building site as best he can. The plasterer will try his best to move more men in, drop men out. But mess him about with the money flow at your peril.

My truism is that the real people in building and civil engineering pay hardly any attention to the tens of thousands of words jam-packed in contract documents. The lawyer will say, 鈥淥h, they tell the parties what their rights and obligations are鈥�. And the industry yawns. For goodness sake, stop writing those forms 鈥� all forms 鈥� for lawyers. Write, design and compile the forms for the users. Make the forms working forms. Yes, I know it鈥檚 ever so hard to make things simple. The KISS principle, when applied to forms of building contract, means 鈥渒eep it short and simple鈥�. Print in the document a form, yes, a 鈥渟tandard form鈥�, a pre-printed paper for the account.

And when it comes to variations or instructions or verbal utterances or requests for information, print in the contract document a 鈥渟tandard form鈥�, yes, pre-printed requests for information. Something, please, which says, 鈥淟ook mate, we think that what you are asking for is an extra.鈥� And, oh dear, oh dear, when it comes to programme and progress, for goodness sake don鈥檛 have legal waffle about fixing dates or refixing dates for the umpteenth time. Use a 鈥渟tandard printed form鈥�. Design the contract document not only to plan the 鈥渄oing鈥� but report and record the progress of the 鈥渄oing鈥�. Put ticks on pre-printed forms.

Now then, you Olympics folk, don鈥檛 you dare use the NEC or JCT or any contract document. Get some real folk to produce a 鈥渨orking form鈥� for the people who manage building work to use on the job. That means the foreman on site in charge of the dry lining lads. That means the supervisor who visits the foreman. That means the surveyor, who visits the supervisor and the foreman to keep tabs on the account. And it means the manager who actually manages all those others. Think KISS. KISS for real people. Not for lawyers, please.