The FIDIC payment timeline: twenty-eight to certify, fifty-six to pay
Two numbers run the money on a FIDIC job in the Gulf. Twenty-eight days for the Engineer to certify, fifty-six days for the Employer to pay, both counted in calendar days from the Statement.
QScope Team · 25 July 2026 · 5 min read
The payment clock on a FIDIC contract in the Gulf is short to describe and easy to miscount. The contractor submits a monthly Statement, the Engineer has a set period to certify, and the Employer has a set period to pay. The dates are fixed by the contract, they are counted in calendar days, and the whole cycle keys off the day the Engineer receives the Statement.
The two deadlines
- Certify within twenty-eight days. Under Sub-Clause 14.6, the Engineer issues the Interim Payment Certificate within twenty-eight days of receiving the contractor's Statement.
- Pay within fifty-six days. Under Sub-Clause 14.7, the Employer pays the certified amount within fifty-six days of the Engineer receiving the Statement.
The second period runs from the same event as the first, the receipt of the Statement, not from the date the certificate is issued. So the payment deadline is fixed the moment the Statement lands, and a slow certificate eats into the Employer's payment window rather than extending it.
Calendar days, not working days
FIDIC counts in calendar days. Weekends and public holidays are inside the count, not added to it. This is the point that trips surveyors moving between jurisdictions, because several markets count payment periods in business days, where the arithmetic is very different. On a FIDIC job, fifty-six days means fifty-six calendar days, and a deadline that falls on a Friday or a public holiday is still that deadline.
What a missed date entitles you to
If the certified amount is not paid within the fifty-six days, the contractor is entitled to financing charges on the overdue sum, compounded monthly, at the rate the contract sets. The entitlement is automatic and does not require a formal notice or a determination. What it does require is knowing the pay-by date in the first place, because a financing charge is only claimed if the surveyor can show the certificate fell due and was not paid on time.
Count from the Statement, every time
The discipline is simple. Record the date the Engineer received the Statement, count twenty-eight calendar days to the certify-by date and fifty-six to the pay-by date, and hold both. Do that on every valuation and late certification and late payment become visible events with dates attached, rather than a vague sense that the money is slow.
QScope counts the FIDIC dates from each Statement, in calendar days, and shows the certify-by and pay-by date for every valuation, so a late certificate or a late payment is visible on the day it happens.