Project cost, as the name implies, is the construction price of the project. Because of its long construction time, complex technology and huge investment, construction projects need to prepare investment estimates, design estimates, construction drawing budgets, completion settlement and final accounts for their feasibility study, design, construction, completion and operation. These "five calculations" are the five manifestations of project cost. Whether the cost calculation is scientific or not is related to the rise and fall of an enterprise or the employment development of the whole construction industry, so the effective management and control of the project cost is an important link of the whole construction project. Promote the management of construction units, construction units and design units, make full use of limited human, material and financial resources, and achieve the best economic and social benefits.
Current international project cost management
Since 2000, developed countries have attached great importance to the management of project cost, and all of them regard project cost as a special discipline. It is a highly integrated specialty in construction economy, technology and management. Taking the United States as an example, the American project cost management organization "AACE" put forward the goal of "ThroughtTotal Cost Management-ment", which pointed out that "in the current increasingly competitive environment, the benefits embodied by the principles and practices of total cost management are concerned and needed by enterprises and companies." In the United States, the investment control of government projects is mainly based on the approved budget. The determination of its investment and budget mainly depends on the data of completed project cost to estimate. The bidding in the project implementation is quoted by the contractor, and the budget related to the cost is entrusted to the cost engineer. Under the condition that the construction market and intermediary services are relatively perfect, the project price is determined by the market, and the cost engineer controls the whole process of the project.
Problems existing in project cost management in China;
1, relevant laws and regulations are not perfect.
At present, there are many defects in the laws and regulations of all walks of life in China, and so do the construction industry. Although China has formulated laws and regulations related to project cost management, these laws and regulations are not perfect for various reasons, especially after China's accession to WTO, there are still some inconsistencies between our laws and the relevant laws of WTO organizations. Therefore, it is urgent to strengthen industry legislation and connect with international practices. The impact of WTO rules on the project cost management in China is 1. The project price will be forced to integrate into the international economic integration system. The fundamental purpose of WTO rules is to solve the market access problems of countries. Through the principles of national treatment, most-favored-nation treatment and non-discrimination, countries are required to open their markets by means of tariff concessions or import commitments. This kind of market access will prompt countries to integrate into the global economic integration system as soon as possible and abide by the rules of international economic activities. In this sense, after China's entry into WTO, the biggest impact on the project cost management industry will be that the project price formation system will be brought into the global unified market from the state of great differences among domestic regions. This sudden change will make the past project price formation mechanism face severe challenges, which will force us to introduce and follow the international practice of project cost management. So what mechanism does WTO use to force us to accept international practices? 2. The government's management of the project cost is not perfect.
The government's imperfection in project cost management is mainly reflected in the fragmentation of project cost management, multiple policies, poor coordination and unclear management subjects.
From the perspective of capital construction procedures and China's management system, the whole process of construction projects can be divided into investment decision-making stage, design stage, construction project contracting stage and construction implementation stage. The construction project cost should be priced separately by stages, and the investment estimate, design budget estimate, construction drawing budget and final (final) calculation should be prepared separately, and the supervision should calculate it.
These departments are planning commission, planning commission, construction commission, etc. Relevant government departments have their own rules and regulations. Objectively, there is a lack of necessary links and effective coordination, and there are often inconsistencies, inconsistencies and even contradictions between documents, which indirectly lead to serious problems such as "three overruns" in project cost (settlement exceeds budget, budget exceeds budget, and budget exceeds investment estimate). The main reason lies in the unsmooth and uncoordinated management system, unsynchronized and uncoordinated reform, and the shackles of traditional concepts and conformism, which have not formed a unified and coordinated project cost management. In addition, as far as the management subject is concerned, it is mainly reflected in the unclear status of the state (or government departments at all levels) in managing the whole project cost activity. On the one hand, it is the maker of macro-policies, appearing as the main body of market management; On the other hand, the specific investors of government investment projects (public projects), as a party to the construction market, directly participate in the management of specific construction projects. This dual role undoubtedly leads to the vague or overlapping responsibilities of governments or competent departments at all levels in the project cost management system. 3. The consciousness of comprehensive management in the whole process of construction project cost is weak.
At present, most of the project cost management in China is a phased management model, and people in the industry generally lack the awareness of comprehensive management of the whole process of construction project cost, especially the weak management of the previous project cost. People in the cost industry have always focused on the implementation stage of construction project cost management, paying attention to the contract cost, expense change and settlement in the process of construction implementation, and often ignoring the cost management in the project establishment stage and design stage. Furthermore, the construction unit, design unit and construction unit lack unified cost management objectives and mutual communication. In the stage of project establishment, the construction unit often starts from subjective will and lacks scientific demonstration for project establishment, which leads to insufficient estimation and gap. Although the design unit has made the project budget estimate in the design stage, even refined it to the budget, due to the lack of control constraints on the design cost index, the design is conservative and the investment is high. Entrusted by the project owner, the supervision unit is often limited to the quality and progress management in the construction stage, and rarely participates in the investment decision analysis. Supervisors are only responsible for the quality and progress of the construction process, but pay little attention to the cost, especially when it comes to engineering changes and on-site visas, which can not effectively consider the quality, progress and economy. Therefore, the phenomenon of "three excesses" has been widespread in China's construction projects for a long time, which seriously puzzles the investment benefit management of construction projects. 4. The project cost pricing model does not meet the needs of market economy.
The characteristics of the current project pricing model can be summarized as a word "fixed", that is, fixed quota. In short, the engineering cost practitioners calculate the engineering quantity according to the engineering drawings, then set a fixed unit price to obtain the direct cost, and then apply the relevant fixed charging rate according to the direct cost to obtain the engineering cost. This pricing model has played a certain role in the era of planned economy, but it can no longer meet the needs of market economy development and further opening up the market, exposing more and more disadvantages:
(1) is not conducive to the transformation of government functions. The construction industry is a general competitive industry, but the most important factor in the construction market-price has obvious administrative color, that is, the government pricing color is too strong. The government's control and intervention in project cost is reflected in the offside of government power under the condition of market economy.
(2) It is not conducive to the full competition of micro-subjects. As the main body of market competition, enterprises are not the main body of product pricing. The practice of charging project cost according to enterprise qualification grade or project category and pricing according to social average labor level hinders enterprises from participating in complete market competition and inhibits their creativity and vitality, thus restricting their rapid development and growth under market economy conditions. 5. The project cost information management is backward.
With the deepening of the reform of project cost management, the project cost mechanism formed in the market competition is gradually improving, and the project cost management is also developing in the direction of adapting to market demand. With the development of information technology, the basic framework of project cost management informatization in China has been initially established, and the series of project cost software with the core of calculating project cost is becoming more and more perfect, and the number of websites providing information and services for project cost management and related activities is increasing. Therefore, the informatization construction of project cost management has a certain foundation, but there are also some problems that cannot be ignored.
(1) Project cost information resource management is not systematic.
At present, the collection, processing and dissemination of engineering cost information lack unified rules, unified coding and system classification, and information system development and resource ownership are closed to each other, which is in a state of war. As a result, the advantages enjoyed by information resources cannot be realized. More managers are satisfied with the current paper information, ignoring the deep processing of information. (2) The collection and processing methods of project cost information are backward.
Backward collection technology, inconsistent information classification standards, inconsistent data formats and access methods make the remote transmission and processing of information resources very difficult. The internal quality of information resources is difficult to improve, and the speed of information maintenance and update is slow, which can not meet the needs of the information market and lags behind the requirements of the information society. (3) Information network construction needs to be improved.
Most of the existing engineering cost networks are built by fixed stations or consulting companies. The content of the website is mainly quota release, some information, related documents forwarding, bidding information release, enterprise or company introduction, etc. The website only displays the existing cost information on the website, and lacks the collation and analysis of this information. With the advent of economic globalization, facing the objective situation of China's project cost management and the increasing internationalization, informationization and networking of project cost management, China's project cost management should do the following work well: 1, speed up the legislative work in the field of project cost management; 2. We must vigorously promote the valuation method of "compiling bill of quantities by physical quantity method"; 3. The dynamic information management system of project cost must be established to realize the informationization and networking of project cost management; 4. Accelerate the establishment of a high-quality engineering cost management talent team; So as to further promote the economic development of China.