The Role Played By The Regulations On Quality Management Of Construction Projects
The Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects is the first administrative regulation formulated after the promulgation and implementation of the Construction Law of the People's Republic of China, and also the first construction project quality regulation in the 50 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China. The promulgation and implementation of the Construction Law and the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects marks that China's engineering quality supervision and management have embarked on a track of legal and benign development, playing an important role in promoting the rapid development of the construction industry, regulating market behavior in construction, and improving the level of engineering quality in China.
As the former Deputy Inspector of the Policy and Regulations Department of the Ministry of Construction, Li Peng, who participated in the formulation of the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects, told the story behind the administrative regulations that have played an important role in the construction field to this day.
A bridge, a regulation
Regarding the social background before the introduction of this administrative regulation, Li Peng was very familiar with it: "In the late 1990s, with the rapid development of the national economy, the country's investment in fixed assets maintained a high level of growth. A number of difficult and high-quality engineering projects were successively completed, some of which reached or approached the international advanced level. For example, the Jinmao Building, Yangpu Bridge, Xiaolangdi Water Conservancy Hub Project in Shanghai at that time. However, the overall engineering quality was not satisfactory. The Qijiang Bridge incident, which shook the whole country in 1999, was a reflection of the problem."
The Qijiang Bridge Incident mentioned by Li Peng refers to the collapse of the Hongqiao Bridge that occurred on January 4, 1999 in Qijiang County, Chongqing. The "Hongqiao" crossing the Qijiang River collapsed as a whole, resulting in 40 deaths and 14 injuries, with a direct economic loss of over 6 million yuan.
The collapse of the Hongqiao Bridge in Qijiang shook the whole country. Leaders of the Party Central Committee and the State Council made multiple phone calls to the construction department to inquire about the casualties. At that time, the Minister of Construction, Chief Engineer, Director of Safety Department, Director of Quality and Technology Department, and others rushed to the scene of the Qijiang accident to inspect and guide the accident investigation and aftermath handling work. On January 7, 1999, the expert group of the "Qijiang 1.4 Incident" preliminarily determined that the overall collapse of Hongqiao was a human responsibility accident. Illegal design, unlicensed construction, chaotic management, and lack of acceptance are important causes of accidents.
Li Peng said, "Later investigation found that the Qijiang Bridge was a 'six no projects'." Li Peng's term' six no projects' refers to 'no plan, no construction application, no bidding, no construction permit, no engineering supervision, and no quality acceptance'. ". Such engineering chaos was not uncommon at that time. In addition, some civil construction projects, especially residential projects, have common quality problems that affect their functional use and have become a hot topic of public complaints.
"Against this backdrop, both the State Council and the Ministry were determined to issue a specialized regulation to supervise the quality and safety of construction projects as soon as possible. Our Regulation Department and related departments were led by the Deputy Minister to draft the" Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects ". There were not many regulations and laws drafted and modified by the Ministry's leadership in my memory. I would like to express my special gratitude to the former State Council Legal Affairs Office for their support. With the coordination of the former State Council Legal Affairs Office, this administrative regulation involving multiple departments' work was successfully issued."
Two "firsts" and two "clear"
In 1998, China introduced the Construction Law of the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as the "Construction Law"), which was the first departmental law in China to regulate construction activities.
So, with the Construction Law, why is it necessary to introduce a specialized supporting "Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects"?
The role played by the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects
Li Peng explained, "As a superior law, the Construction Law stipulates comparative principles. Therefore, in order to further strengthen the government's quality supervision and management, standardize the quality responsibilities and obligations of all parties involved in construction projects, maintain the order of the construction market, and comprehensively improve the quality of construction projects, it is necessary to formulate construction project quality regulations. The Construction Project Quality Management Regulations are the first supporting administrative regulations formulated after the promulgation and implementation of the Construction Law, and also the first administrative regulations to strengthen quality supervision and management."
Before the promulgation of the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects, the most important administrative regulation in terms of engineering quality was the Construction Project Quality Management Measures promulgated by the Ministry of Construction in 1993. Before and after this, the former Ministry of Construction also successively issued the "Acceptance Measures for Construction Project (Engineering) Archives", "Management Measures for Construction Engineering Construction Contracts", "Regulations on Engineering Construction Supervision", "Management Measures for Construction Engineering Construction Permits", and so on. Although this reflects the importance that the central government and the Ministry of Construction attach to engineering construction safety, some scholars have pointed out that there is a phenomenon of unclear subjects and unclear responsibilities, which will affect the true implementation and enforcement of the law. The promulgation of the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects is conducive to solving this problem.
Moreover, there are two far-reaching "clarifications" in the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects.
Li Peng said, "In the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects, it is important to clarify the unified supervision and management system for engineering construction, because only by clarifying the unified management system can regulatory responsibilities be further clarified.".
The Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects specify in detail the responsibilities and obligations of construction units, survey and design units, construction units, and engineering supervision units in construction projects, as well as quality warranty, supervision and management, and penalty provisions.
"Only by clarifying what each responsible unit must do, how to do it, and the serious consequences of not doing so, and then having actionable and corresponding supervision measures and penalties, can this regulation be effectively implemented after being formulated."
In order to strengthen the deterrence of legal provisions, the punishment level stipulated in the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects is also relatively high. Li Peng said, "In 2000, some of the penalties in the" Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects "were as high as 200000 yuan and 500000 yuan, while others were still determined based on the percentage of cost, which was a very high cost. The original intention of high penalties was to impose heavy penalties on behaviors that did not comply with legal provisions through regulations, increase the cost of illegal activities, and serve as a warning."
In June 2000, the former Ministry of Construction issued a notice on conscientiously organizing the study, promotion, and implementation of the Regulations on Quality Management of Construction Projects. The national construction system launched a new reform to elevate engineering quality management to a new level.
A regret, a suggestion
When it comes to this regulation that has been put in countless efforts, Li Peng deeply feels it. Li Peng jokingly said, "To be honest, I feel conflicted when I saw your interview invitation. On the one hand, I really want to talk because I have spent a lot of time on it, and I also want more people to know about some of the relevant background of this law. On the other hand, when I think about legislation, projects have to be included in the legislative plan and go through the process of review, argumentation, and so on. I really don't want to recall the process of constantly revising and discussing, which is too difficult."
"The birth of a regulation involves multiple parties' work and requires continuous coordination and discussion. You need to sit down and calm down. What we did the most at that time was to sit down and list and type out various opinions like a test question, repeatedly pondering and editing." Li Peng said.
But even though it was so hard, Li Peng still felt regretful. She believes that the research conducted during the drafting of laws and regulations could have been more comprehensive. "Although the ultimate goal of the law is not to pursue perfection, if possible, it is still necessary to go deep into the front line and communicate with enterprises more, conduct more research, so that our legal provisions will definitely be better. For example, our intention at that time was to use heavy penalties to deter some enterprises, make everyone pay attention to quality, and act in accordance with laws and regulations. However, in actual implementation, heavy penalties can also cause some difficulties in implementation, causing some difficulties for enterprises and management departments."
"This kind of communication and research also includes the connection with industry associations. It was only after I went to work at industry associations that I realized more deeply that industry associations are actually a good link between departments and enterprises, because they directly face the enterprise, they can do many things that we cannot or are not suitable to do. Industry associations also have many very professional and young forces, and can do many very professional things."
Faced with the upcoming sixth National Constitution Day, this veteran legal worker gave his suggestion: "I have a suggestion for promoting legal education and legislation in China. That is, in terms of learning and promoting legal education, leaders from various units and localities should first pay attention to it and play a demonstrative role. Only when leaders study hard and attach importance to laws and regulations can there be greater promotion to the implementation of laws and regulations."
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