萬國法律事務所

Following several days of heated debate between the Taiwan Regional Engineering Contractors’ Association (TRECA) and the Public Construction Commission of the Executive Yuan (PCC) over the institution of mandatory arbitration for public construction disputes, the Executive Yuan finally stepped in and PCC has agreed to amend the construction procurement contract template as well as to consider the applicability of mandatory arbitration for the resolution of public construction disputes.

TRECA had previously conducted a large campaign in the media against PCC’s opposition to the inclusion of a mandatory arbitration clause in the construction procurement contract template. TRECA claimed that PCC was intentionally impeding contractors’ rights to resort to alternative dispute resolution by rejecting the imposition of a mandatory arbitration clause and by setting up various obstacles in the mediation process against the referral of disputes to arbitration when mediation failed.

According to PCC, the proposed amendment to the construction procurement contract template will allow contractors to resort to arbitration should one party disagree to a proposal made by the mediator or if mediation fails to produce an outcome within six months. PCC, however, did not directly respond to TRECA’s request to include a mandatory arbitration clause into the template, and rather promised only that it will evaluate and confirm whether such a clause is in compliance with the Constitution and provide an analysis report within three months.