Example:

A contract entitles the contractor to an extension of time and payment of additional costs in the event of delays caused by the project owner.  The contract also provides that the contractor should pay damages to the project owner, and bear its own additional costs, in the event of delays caused by the contractor.  Under the contract, the project engineer is required to impartially determine questions of delay and additional cost.  The contractor has been delayed by 60 days in completing the project.  The contractor is aware that two reasons account for the delay.  The first cause is the delayed delivery of materials by one of the contractor’s suppliers, for which delay the contractor is responsible under the contract, and for which it would be liable to pay liquidated damages to the project owner.  This accounts for 30 days delay.  The second cause is a variation to the specification issued by the engineer for which delay the project owner is responsible under the contract and for which the contractor would be entitled to receive an extension of time and additional cost. This accounts for 30 days delay.  The contractor submits a written claim to the project engineer which alleges that the whole 60 day delay was attributable to the change in specification.  The contractor does not refer in the claim to the supply contract delay, and does not disclose to the project engineer documentation in relation to the supply contract which would reveal the supplier delay.

Explanation:

The contractor knows that 30 days delay is caused by the supplier, and that only 30 days is attributable to the project owner.  However, the contractor claims the full 60 days.  The contractor is committing fraud by two means; (1) falsely representing that the full 60 days is the project owner’s responsibility; and (2) failing to disclose evidence which would have shown that 30 days of the claim were actually the contractor’s responsibility.

The above example attributes an exact number of days to each cause of delay.  However, in many cases, the exact number of days delay may be difficult to calculate.  The parties may be aware that there are several causes of the delay, some attributable to one party and some to the other, but they may be unsure of actual cause and effect.  In some cases, delay causes may be concurrent.  In that case full disclosure of all circumstances should be made by all relevant parties, so that the adjudicator can make the best decision possible.  Parties should not mispresent facts or withhold evidence.