Two deadlines run the money: 28 days and 56 days
Without a Security of Payment statute, the FIDIC timetable is the only clock on a Saudi job. The Engineer has 28 days to certify and the Employer has 56 days from the Statement to pay. Miss the distinction and you chase the wrong date.
QScope Team · 5 February 2026 · 5 min read
On FIDIC Red and Yellow Book contracts, which run most of the large work in the Kingdom, payment is governed by two separate periods that people routinely confuse. One is the Engineer time to certify. The other is the Employer time to pay. They start from the same event but they are not the same deadline.
The 28 days: certification
Under Sub-Clause 14.6, the Engineer issues the Interim Payment Certificate within 28 days after receiving the Contractor Statement and supporting documents. This is the certifying period. Nothing is owed yet, and chasing the Employer during this window is chasing the wrong party. Your pressure point here is the Engineer, and the lever is a Statement clean enough to certify without query.
The 56 days: payment
Under Sub-Clause 14.7, the Employer pays the amount certified within 56 days after the Engineer receives the Statement and supporting documents. Read that carefully. The payment clock runs from the Statement, not from the certificate. So the Engineer 28 days sits inside the Employer 56 days, and the two periods overlap rather than run end to end.
Why the overlap matters
Because both periods count from the same Statement, a late certificate eats into the Employer payment window rather than extending it. If the Engineer takes the full 28 days, the Employer still has to pay by day 56, leaving 28 days to move the money. If the Engineer certifies late, the Employer payment date does not move, so the Contractor loses none of the 56 days it was promised.
Calendar days, not working days
These are calendar days. There is no deduction for Fridays, for public holidays, or for the periods around Ramadan and the two Eids. Twenty-eight days is twenty-eight days on the calendar, and fifty-six is fifty-six. A Statement submitted just before a long holiday still carries its full statutory count, which is why the submission date is worth diarising precisely.
The discipline
Submit the Statement on the same date each month, record that date, and derive both deadlines from it immediately. Diary the certification date so you know when to press the Engineer, and diary the payment date so you know when a genuine default has occurred. On a job with no statute behind you, the contract dates are the only ones you have, so treat them precisely.
QScope derives both dates from the Statement date, so you can see the certification deadline and the payment deadline on every cycle without counting by hand.