How to choose a building contractor in Oman: grades, licences and the checks that matter

Oman's Tender Board registers and classifies suppliers, contractors and consultancy offices under Decision 104/2022. Contractors are placed in grades, from excellent grade through first to fourth grade, based on their capital, staff, equipment and track record. The grade sets which government tenders a company may bid for. An excellent-grade contractor can bid for any Tender Board project, and some tenders are restricted to that grade alone.

Private clients can appoint any grade. The grade is still a useful proxy for capacity: a fourth-grade contractor building a hotel is a risk, and an excellent-grade contractor pricing a single villa is unlikely to give it attention. Match the grade to the size and complexity of your project.

Before a contractor goes on your shortlist, ask for these and read them.

• Commercial registration showing the construction activity, and the Tender Board classification certificate with its grade and expiry.
• Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry membership and municipal licence.
• Insurance: contractor's all-risks and workmen's compensation, with the policy limits.
• A list of projects completed in the last three years with client contacts, values and dates.
• The last audited accounts or a bank reference letter, so you know they can carry the cash flow of your job.

Visit a finished project, a project on site now and the contractor's own yard or office. The finished building shows the standard of finish. The live site shows housekeeping, safety, supervision and whether the programme board is current. The yard shows whether the equipment on the tender list exists.

Three quotations against three different understandings of the job are not comparable. A measured bill of quantities, a specification and a fixed set of drawings, issued to every contractor at the same time with the same deadline, is what makes prices comparable. It is also what stops the variations that start on day one when the scope was never pinned down.

When bids come in, check the arithmetic and the rates, normalise the exclusions and the qualifications, look at front-loading in the payment schedule and interview the site team who will actually run the job. Then choose.

• A price far below the others with no explanation of how.
• Reluctance to show insurance, accounts or a live site.
• A project list with no client names or phone numbers.
• A programme with no critical path, or none at all.
• Pressure to sign before the drawings are complete.

Use a recognised standard form with clear payment terms, retention, an advance payment guarantee if you pay one, a performance bond, insurances named, a defects liability period and a mechanism for valuing change. A contract that is silent on change is a contract that will be argued about.