When a contractor considers some work entitles him to extra payment but the engineer does not immediately agree, the contractor may suggest that he should submit daywork sheets for it for record purposes only (FRPO sheets), so that the quantity of alleged extra work can be agreed. This suggestion may seem reasonable, but it can result in the contractors submitting scores (or hundreds)
of FRPO sheets for everything, which he thinks he could claim as an extra. He can work on the basis that the more sheets he puts in, the greater is his chance of getting some extra payment, and so he is not over-concerned as to their accuracy or validity. The resident engineer, however, may not have the staff to check so many sheets and may consider it a waste of time to check them if many appear obviously invalid claims.
Therefore, on the first occasion when the contractor suggests submitting FRPO sheets, the resident engineer should refer the proposal to the engineer since, once the principle is accepted for one matter, it may be difficult to prevent submission of FRPO sheets for other matters. Under Clause 53 of the ICE conditions the contractor is required to give notice of a claim, and after that is required to submit full details of it. FRPO sheets are not recognized under ICE conditions, nor does the engineer have to evaluate a claim (if payable at all)
on a dayworks basis if that is what is suggested (see Section 13.8). Hence the engineer may decide not to agree to submission of FRPO sheets and, if the contractor persists in sending them, he may advise the resident engineer not to reply to them, only to file them, putting notes thereon concerning their accuracy in case they later form the basis of a properly submitted claim. This avoids time-consuming correspondence and dispute on the sheets, which might inadvertently give the impression the contractor has a claim, which is valid in principle. If, however, dayworks sheets (whether labelled FRPO or not) are submitted in support of some properly notified claim regarding extra work, the resident engineer must reply if he considers the sheets are invalid or incorrect, or may need to reject dayworks rates as a means of payment unless work has been instructed on that basis.