世界银行等国际金融机构是国际工程项目的主要资金来源之一，这类项目合同管理程序严谨且规范，尤其是在重大工程变更方面有着严格的要求。今年中国共有79家企业入围“2022年度全球最大250家国际承包商榜单”。但大多数承包商缺乏对世行贷款的大型复杂项目的管理经验，经常会造成项目停滞、亏损甚至终止合同的情况发生。作者结合自己的工作实践，以世界银行贷款项目—DS公路项目为例，从承包商的角度，针对世界银行贷款的施工总承包项目的变更管理进行研究。DS公路项目前期主要存在三大问题和挑战：1、用地征拆进度严重滞后；2、项目安全风险极大；3、原始设计方案存在较大的缺陷。这些问题和挑战导致承包商进场后无法正常开展工作，虽然通过“见缝插针”的策略能在局部施工，但受限于征地宽度不够，以及原设计方案未避让松散堆积体、滑坡带等不良地质，高陡边坡未设任何防护措施等因素影响，引起了较大的社会问题、环保问题、安全问题、质量问题和成本问题，造成承包商过程中亏损，同时项目进度被大幅度延误。为解决以上存在的问题和挑战，项目团队从四个方面进行努力：1、仔细研究合同，并结合现场实际，梳理存在的问题并理清责任，确定了从“变更”的角度来寻找解决途径和突破口，从而系统的解决系列问题。2、加强与政府高层、业主和当地地主的沟通，争取得到理解，从而化解施工引起的社会矛盾；3、多次邀请地质和线路专家团队到现场，对原设计方案进行评估，进一步系统的指出原设计方案的不足，并给出初步的变更方案；4、项目团队进行优化后先工程师提交“桥隧”变更建议书，并与工程师、业主、世行分阶段进行沟通和谈判，从安全、进度、质量、效益等方面指出原设计方案存在的问题，同时将变更后的“桥隧”方案对项目总目标和各方关切的响应情况进行分析，最终得到业主和世行的批复。本文通过对国际工程及世行项目的变更管理的相关理论进行研究，通过对案例发生变更的必要性和影响因素进行分析，思考了解决变更困难的各种措施并论证了变更成功的关键因素，最后提出了世界银行贷款施工总承包项目变更管理的处理策略，丰富了该领域的管理经验。通过本研究，希望能够为国际金融机构出资的项目遇到业主征地问题、原始设计方案缺陷问题等导致项目进展不顺时，如何采用变更管理突破困局提供一些借鉴，增强我国承包商在大型复杂国际工程项目管理重大变更时的能力，使项目能够获得成功，保障我国承包商在内的多方利益，提高国际工程项目管理水平。
The World Bank, among other international financial institutions, is one of the main sources of financing for international project contracting. In total 79 Chinese companies have made the “ENR 2022 Top 250 International Contractors” yet most of them struggle with stagnant progress, financial loss, and even termination of contract for lack of management experience in large and complexed projects funded by the World Bank.This study focuses on the management of variations in projects funded by the World Bank with reference to the writer’s own experience in DS road project, a World-Bank-funded project. At the beginning of the project execution, DS project faced three major challenges: 1. Land acquisition way behind schedule; 2. Extremely high safety risks; 3. Flawed original design. Despite the contractor’s effort to work wherever it could, these challenges made it impossible for the contractor to proceed construction as planned after having mobilized personnel and equipment to site. The land acquired by the employer is not wide enough for construction, and the original design failed to circumvent adverse geological conditions such as loose conglomeration and slide, with no existing protection along steep side slopes. These have incurred sizable social, environmental, safety, quality and cost issues for the contractor, who suffered temporary financial loss behind progress schedule.The project management team worked on four aspects to cope with the above-mentioned issues and challenges. 1. “Change” was confirmed to serve as the main method to systematically resolve all issues, with all issues listed and their accountabilities clarified after a close study of the contract and thorough examination of site realities. 2. Communications were strengthened with the local government, the employer, and the landlords to promote mutual understanding and mitigate social conflicts aroused from project execution. 3. Groups of experts in geology and route design were invited to site to conduct professional evaluations on the original design and to pinpoint its specific flaws before proposing a variation plan. 4. A Change proposal including bridges and tunnels, prepared by the contractor and submitted by the engineer, was discussed in multiple rounds and phases of negotiations among the contractor, the engineer, the employer, and the World Bank, where the original design’s defaults in terms of safety, progress, quality, and efficiency were demonstrated, and the benefits of the bridges and tunnels variation were illustrated, until the variation proposal was eventually approved by the employer and the World Bank. Theoretical studies are made concerning the management of variations in international projects especially those funded by the World Bank, and a case study is conducted to analyze the necessity and the influencing factors of variations. Solutions to obstacles in variations and the key to successful variations are discussed, before a strategy is proposed for managing variations in projects funded by the World Bank, which is helpful to the management in the same line of work.This study aims to provide insights on resolving such progress-hindering issues as land acquisition and flawed design with variation management, so that Chinese contractors could become more capable in managing major and complex international projects to reach successful objectives where the interests of all parties involved are secured.
