The Final Payment Certificate and closing a FIDIC account
The final account on a FIDIC job is not one document. It is a sequence, from the Statement at Completion through to the Final Payment Certificate, and each step has a purpose.
QScope Team · 20 July 2026 · 6 min read
Closing an account on a FIDIC contract in the Gulf is a defined sequence, not a single negotiation at the end. The Red Book takes the contractor from a statement at completion, through the defects period, to a final statement and the Final Payment Certificate. Each step has a job to do, and skipping the order is how a final account drifts for a year with nobody able to say what is agreed.
The Statement at Completion
After the Taking-Over Certificate is issued, the contractor submits a Statement at Completion under Sub-Clause 14.10. It sets out the value of all work done to the date of the Taking-Over Certificate, and the amounts the contractor considers will still become due. It is not the final account, but it is the first full reckoning, and it frames everything that follows.
The Final Statement and discharge
Once the Performance Certificate has been issued, marking the end of the Defects Notification Period, the contractor submits a draft final statement under Sub-Clause 14.11, showing the final value of everything done and any further sums the contractor considers due. When it is agreed with the Engineer, it becomes the Final Statement, and the contractor also provides a discharge confirming that the total represents full and final settlement.
- Draft final statement. The contractor's full and final position, submitted for the Engineer's review.
- Agreement or determination. Items in dispute are resolved, and the agreed total becomes the Final Statement.
- Discharge. The written confirmation of settlement, which can be made conditional on payment and on the return of the performance security.
The Final Payment Certificate
Within twenty-eight days of receiving the Final Statement and the discharge, the Engineer issues the Final Payment Certificate under Sub-Clause 14.13, stating the amount finally due and the balance owing to the contractor or to the employer. This is the certificate that closes the money. The retention has been released, the advance repaid, the variations settled and the claims resolved, and the Final Payment Certificate is where all of it nets off to a single balance.
Why the order protects you
Each step converts a running position into an agreed one, so that by the time the Final Payment Certificate is issued there is very little left to argue. A contractor who lets valuations, variations and claims accumulate unagreed until the end faces the whole account as one unstructured fight. The sequence exists to prevent exactly that, and following it is the cheapest form of dispute avoidance on the job.
QScope carries every certified valuation, variation and claim through to the Final Statement, reconciles it against what was paid, and holds the discharge so the account closes on the FIDIC sequence rather than in a spreadsheet.