Having the special inspectors work for the EOR is infinitely superior to having a third party inspector. The EOR is “in the loop” when inspections are scheduled through his office, he can track the progress, notify the inspector when critical-complicated items will be coming up, he will see the reports in a more timely manor and there is a direct line of communication between the inspector and the EOR.
From personal experience, whenever I have a third party inspector on one of my jobs, I almost never get any calls from the field or comments on the reports that they found anything to be non-conformant. When my own people do these inspections, I get multiple calls every week asking if something is OK, or if something needs to be fixed.
Sophisticated owners recognize the value of having the inspector work for the EOR, but all to often, they see the bottom line and go with the low-ball number. Many just don’t understand the impact of using an un-certified concrete tester as their inspector.
Perhaps projects like the one highlighted in this thread will wake some people up- but I doubt it.