The completion certificate is required by the CIDB to determine the works capability of your construction company.

The CIDB determines your works capability by looking at the highest single construction project issued to your construction company by the public or private sector within the past 5 years.

The higher the monetary value of the construction project completed, the higher the probabilities of qualifying for a higher CIDB grading.

CIDB gradings are issued in the categories of level 1 to 9 with 9 being the ultimate CIDB grade.

Now, over the past years, I have come across a number of completion certificates when assisting construction companies with the registration or upgrade of their CIDB levels.

In my experience, I have realized that completion certificates issued by the public sector are spot on and do not need any adjustments to be made upon them

However, those which are issued by the private sector, can sometimes be shocking when it comes to meeting the generally accepted minimum completion certificate standards as required by the Construction and Industry Development Board.

In this article, I will be discussing the minimum requirements that should be presented on the completion certificate issued by your employer when you have completed a construction project, and that you are intending to use the same certificate for the upgrading of your CIDB at the Construction and Industry Development Board.

Minimum criteria number one, the completion certificate must at least be on the official letterhead of your employer.

This might seem obvious, but wait a minute, I have seen completion certificates that bear the contractor’s company name rather than that of the employer.

This is the exact opposite of the requirements and it should not be so.

A completion certificate issued by the employer should have the employer’s company name, telephone number, address as well as the name of the line manager or supervisor that can vouch for the construction work carried out.

The CIDB has the tendency of calling the line manager on the telephone number attached to the completion certificate, just to confirm the intricate details of the construction contract.

It is always wise to at least put the land line of the employer’s company as well as the cellphone number of the line manager.

The CIDB personnel will generally call to confirm about the project value, the nature of the work conducted, the quality as well as the satisfactorily completion of the project.

Should the line manager contradict what is described in the project contract as well as the final completion certificate, your CIDB registration & upgrade could be potentially jeopardized.

The other feature to be included on your completion certificate is the project start & end dates.

These must easily be distinguishable on the completion certificate and there should be no confusion between the two.

They must also be in line with the cash flow payments on the bank statement.

Unless your employer can justify cash flow challenges or surpluses, it would not make sense to the CIDB as to why for example more than 90% of your project payments were paid before or after the practical commencement of your construction project.

Another issue that is also overlooked on most completion certificates, is not to state whether the project was completed successfully or not, the completion certificate must state the fact that the project was successfully completed in terms of the provisions of the construction contract, together with all the plans, specifications as well as any other modifications or variation orders contained in thereafter.

It must also state in full the full description of the project. This description must match the same wording as contained on the project award letter or construction contract description.

The completion certificate must also include the site name and also mention any project retention amounts or the defects liabilities retention period.

If the projection retention amount has been paid subsequent to the application and that this amount appears on the bank statements, then this amount must be matched to the retention amounts as included on the completion certificate to the last cent.

And finally, the completion certificate must be signed by both agents of the employer and employee construction company and dated.