Whether in the "Implementation Opinions" of the central government or in the pilot policy requirements of various places, it is emphasized that the main body of engineering design responsibility should be clarified and the designer's lifelong responsibility system should be implemented to ensure the safety of engineering design after the construction drawing is cancelled. This sudden increase in professional liability risk has had a great impact on people in the design industry. Therefore, while further promoting the system of "canceling construction drawing review", the relevant departments are constantly improving the corresponding security system.
On February 2 1 2020, Shenzhen Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Examination and Reform of Construction Drawings of Construction Projects in Our City" (draft for comments), which clarified the design responsibility relationship between design units and construction units in the document, strengthened the main responsibility of construction units and reduced the professional responsibility risk of designers.
1. Strengthen the design quality responsibility of the construction unit and undertake the management responsibility of the whole process of design quality and safety.
According to the requirements of "Draft for Comment", in terms of main responsibilities: the construction unit is mainly responsible for the quality and safety management of engineering survey and design; Survey units and design units are the main responsible persons for the quality and safety management of engineering survey and design.
At the same time, the project leader system is implemented. Entrusted by their respective units, the project leaders of the construction unit and the survey and design unit are fully responsible for the whole process management of the quality and safety of the project survey and design, and assume the main responsibility for the quality and safety of the project survey and design.
The construction unit shares the risk of design responsibility.
Previously, from 2065438 to September 2009, Shenzhen issued the "Implementation Plan for Further Deepening the Reform of the Examination and Approval System of Engineering Construction Projects", which required strengthening the lifelong responsibility of the project leaders of the five responsible subjects of engineering construction, survey, design, construction and supervision. It is pointed out that the project leader of the construction unit is fully responsible for the engineering quality, and the project leader of the survey and design unit should ensure that the survey and design documents meet the requirements of laws and regulations and mandatory standards for engineering construction, and be responsible for the engineering quality accidents or quality problems caused by survey and design.
Compared with the implementation plan, the exposure draft is more specific in the division of responsibilities, especially emphasizing the primary responsibility of the construction unit for design quality and safety management, and pointing out that the project leader of the construction unit should be fully responsible for the whole process management of project design quality and safety, and share the main responsibility with the design leader.
This main responsibility requires the construction unit to actually participate in the engineering design management, participate in the design quality responsibility, and help the engineering designers share the corresponding design responsibility risks. Most importantly, in view of the irregular market behaviors of relevant owners in the current construction market, such as "interfering with normal design", "lowering design standards" and "changing design without authorization", after strengthening the design quality responsibility of construction units, they need to take more responsibility for their irregular behaviors, thus forcing them to standardize market behaviors and reducing the risk of quality responsibility of designers.
Third-party organizations spread the risk of design responsibility.
Because the construction unit should also manage the quality and safety of engineering design in the whole process, and bear the main responsibility for the quality and safety of engineering survey and design. This means that the construction unit needs to strictly supervise the project engineering design work and be responsible for the integrity, authenticity and timeliness of the survey and design documents uploaded to the relevant management information platform.
But objectively, the construction unit is not a design institute, and it lacks corresponding professional skills, so it is impossible to effectively supervise the project design. Therefore, introducing third-party engineering consulting institutions or contacting design institutes is the most effective way to supervise the quality of project design, and these third-party institutions can also share the risk of design responsibility for project designers.
2. The design of professional liability insurance system is progressing slowly.
Compared with strengthening the design quality responsibility of the construction unit, dispersing the professional liability risk of engineering designers, developing and popularizing the application and popularization of engineering design professional liability insurance is undoubtedly a more direct and effective risk protection method. 2065438+September 2009, Shenzhen issued the "Implementation Opinions on Comprehensively Carrying out the Reform of the Examination and Approval System of Engineering Construction Projects", proposing to implement the liability insurance system for survey and design practice.
Regrettably, however, compared with the policy of "designer's lifelong responsibility system", "engineering design professional liability insurance", as a risk guarantee for designer's professional liability, has not been effectively developed. In this "exposure draft", there is no mention of the relevant promotion methods, requirements and implementation methods for designing professional liability insurance.
Objectively speaking, it is not an absolutely effective way to restrain the relevant irregular market behavior and reduce the design quality risk by strengthening the design quality responsibility of the construction unit. In the absence of a strong market supervision mechanism, it is inevitable that some people will be driven by capital interests and take risks, regardless of the safety of design and construction, and change the design without authorization. This will inevitably aggravate the professional responsibility risk of designers. Therefore, from the perspective of designers' liability risk protection, the important prerequisite for further promoting the "cancellation of construction drawing review" is to speed up the improvement of the market application and promotion of "engineering design professional liability insurance".
On April 1 2020, Shenzhen will formally cancel the construction drawing review system and strengthen the design quality responsibility of the construction unit, which will play a certain role in dispersing and transferring the professional responsibility risk of engineering designers, but only if the construction unit has a high sense of self-discipline and supervision. Comparatively speaking, developing engineering design professional liability insurance is a more direct and effective way to protect risks. Therefore, relevant departments should vigorously promote the popularization and application of engineering design professional liability insurance while promoting the cancellation of construction drawing review.