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Name: Justina Ekundayo Course: PRE 843 (Construction Management) Mat. No.

: PG/ENG 0515351

Question 1: Engineers are worried about (i) status, (ii) Ethics of the profession. Discuss it in the light of the present situation in the country. The nature of the Engineering Profession is summarized in the following words of Late Hubert Hoover, a former United States of America President. The great liability of the engineer compared to men of other professions is that his works are out in the open where all men see them. His acts, step by step are in hard substance. He cannot bury his mistakes in the grave like the Doctors; He cannot argue them into the thin air or blame the judge like the lawyers; he cannot like the Architect cover his failures with trees and vines; He cannot like the politician screen his short coming by blaming his opponents and hope people will forget. The Engineer cannot deny his works. He comes from the job at the end of the day resolved to calculate it again. He wakes in the morning. All day he shivers at the thought of the bugs which will inevitably appear to jolt his smooth consummations. On the other hand unlike the Doctor, he is not a life among the weak; unlike the soldier, destruction is not his purpose; unlike the lawyer quarrels are not his daily bread. But the Engineer looks back at unending stream of goodness which flow from his success with satisfaction that only the professional may know.

The Engineer is in a catch 22 situation with regards to his status compared to other professionals in the society. He has no face to face contact with the society like the Doctors, lawyers, etc. The only time that the Engineer comes into reckoning is when his works do not function properly as expected or when it fails e.g. Collapsed bridges, pothole filled roads, failed structures etc. These are negative reasons and they get blamed. However when the works of the Engineer are functioning well the society rather than commend the Engineer, do not even notice him. In essence, the better they are, the less the society notices them. In Nigeria, the present situation is that all the works of the Engineer that the public sees are in very bad shape and over the years the engineer has not help to improve the impression the society have of them. They have contributed directly and indirectly to the present state of Nigeria in relation to the the state of the infrastructure, power, the industrial sector etc. The power sector that is suppose to drive other sector of the economy is in a sick state, with PHCN still struggling to meet 3000MW of electricity. These generated power is being supplied in an epilletic way. The various roads have become death traps with pothools, industial concerns are folding up daily, the local refinery cannot guarantee production of refined products etc. All these are mainly engineering concerns. Engineers are present in all sectors of the economy ( Public and Private) where contracts are awarded for new projects, maintenance of existing infrastructure are carried out, were project execution are being supervised and monitored e.t.c.

Over the years, Engineers due to greed have connived with politicians, contractors, etc to deliver poor quality jobs in all sectors of the economy. They have also contributed to running aground industries and companies as heads through fraudulent activities. With the present state of things in Nigeria it is hard to see how the status of the engineer can be normalized from state of blaming to the state were the public do not even notice them since their work will be functioning well. To achieve this normalized state the Engineers and their professional bodies (NSE, COREN) needs to look at the issue of status from a holistic angle and be ready to take on the challenge of ensuring that their works are functioning well. The Engineers need to be reminded that they are unlike the Doctors and lawyers who save their clients neck, thereby earning great respect from these people. The case of the Engineer is that of the better they are the less they are noticed and the less the public want to notice them. The profession in this view is like a faceless one. The ethics of the professional Engineer is for the use and convenience of man. The question is can the Engineer maintain the ethics of the profession defined above, in the present day Nigeria. For use and convenience of man means that any project, product or services that is handled by the Engineer must be delivered in time, at reasonable cost and in high quality. The Engineer although have no face to face contact with the public, but his work are there for public scrutiny. The public want to use good roads, have uninterrupted power supply, un-interrupted supply of portable water from the

utility etc and to them the Engineer is performing well when these things are working well. Hence they dont think about the Engineer until when those things are not functioning well or not available. Unfortunately for the Engineer, presently in Nigeria all the things that show their work as far as the public is concern are not functioning well, hence the public is castigating the Nigerian Engineer. Over the years, a large percentage of Engineers and Engineering firms have sacrificed the ethics of the profession for use and convenience of man on the altar of greed and corruption. The result being the poor execution of projects, substandard products, poorly rendered services and the attendant poor quality. They have connived with the contractors and politicians and their likes in the private sector to deliver poor quality and expensive jobs or even commission projects on paper. It is argued that it is very difficult for the professional Engineer to maintain the ethics of the profession given the present condition in which the politicians are running the show, but I do not agree, the reason being that if the Engineers insist on delivery of high quality jobs in a cost effective manner and they are backed by the professional bodies (NSE, COREN) then the politicians and Businessmen will have no alternative than to follow suite. But in a situation where one Engineer refuses and is removed by those in position of authority, only for the same job to be certified okay by another Engineer who wants to make money or get promotion by throwing the ethics of the profession to the trash bin does not argue well for the profession as a

whole. At all time the Engineer should ensure his professional responsibilities and obligations are the guiding principles that should drive his or her every day decisions and actions. This applies to the Engineers in all area of the economy, be it private or public. Greed and corrupt tendencies should be relegated to the back ground. The Engineering bodies need to get more interested in project delivery in both the private and public sector. Any Engineer found wanting in upholding the ethics of the profession should be sanctioned either by suspension of their practicing license or outright revocation of their license depending on the severity of the offence.

Question 2: Explain how you will implement due process in contract management in your establishment? Due process in Contract management is the process of following strictly established guidelines and procedures in the administration of contract or procurement. The implementation of due process in contract management in our establishment is as follows. The first step in the implementation of Due Process is the setting of approval limit based on different range of contract values. The approval of the different range of contracts will be effected by different cadre of management staff including the Managing director. This will be done in accordance with the appropriate due process guidelines. The next step involves the establishment of a tender board made up of middle and senior management staff of the organization. The function of the board will approve all contracts within the limits specified in contract management guidelines.

A Contract shall be deemed valid only when the legal adviser agreement has been duly executed The requirement of vendors awarded contracts by the Company to provide advance mobilization and performance bonds from reputable banks/insurance companies as the case may be will be put in place. Also to be included will be a clause exempting Vendors with previous records of satisfactory Performances from meeting the above conditions. There will also be the requirement that Payment of Advance Mobilization on any Contract must be backed by the certain documents attached to the Payment Voucher (P.V.). Such document includes Letter of Award of Contract, The Managing Directors approval, Letter of release of fund, Bank or Insurance Bonds as necessary, etc. Also the requirement that in all subsequent payments, certain document must be attached to P.V. in addition to those stated will be made part of process. Typical document may include Project Monitoring Unit report, Valuation Certificate prepared by the project Engineer and approved by the project manager, A Valuation Certificate issued by Budget Monitoring Unit (BMU) in respect of Contracts above a certain amount. As part of the process, the Project Monitoring Unit must carry out periodic Inspection of projects being executed for the company and report accordingly. Such reports shall be made through a standardized format to be developed by The Project Directorate (Planning Engineer) the copies of which must be submitted to the BMU Preparation of Project Specifications or Bills of Quantities: All contract specifications and /or Bills of Quantities prepared by private consultants must be vetted, by the Project Manager. However, when consultants are not engaged, such Specifications and Bill of Quantities shall be prepared by the Project Engineer.

Valuation Certification: In all cases, the project Director shall issue Valuation Certificates for all projects. Direct Labour Jobs: The process will make provision for Direct Labour Jobs in the following manner: The Company may execute projects through direct labour only if it is provable that such method represents the best available option in terms of expertise, cost effectiveness, value for money and accountability. However, the supervision and evaluation of such jobs shall be effected with due collaboration with the Project Monitoring Unit and the BMU, which shall issue Project Completion Certification at the end of project. Contract Award process: Provision is made for all contracts below N500, 000 such that a memorandum should be presented to the Tenders Board by the Project manager. The Memorandum so presented must contain the following: Title of the Memorandum, Purpose of the Memorandum, Summary details on project objectives and scope., Specification of all items of works, Bills of Quantities, Project Design, Schedule of basic rates; where relevant, Implementation schedule and execution period, Cost of the project and financial provision available from previous allocations and current budget, Terms of payment to be used. Advertisement in companys Notice Board: Provision is made in the guidelines for contracts above N500, 000 but below N2.5 million, notices for pre-qualification must be placed on the Notice Board of the Company. For contracts above N2.5million, advertisement must be placed in Companys Notice board. The submission period for applications shall be two weeks from the date of first advertisement and all pre-qualification documents must be submitted at a time and location clearly specified in the advertisement.

The invitation for pre-qualifications should include the following: Name and address of the processing Department; A brief description of the objective and technical specification of the Project ; The qualification and category of contractors expected to tender; The invitation for pre-qualification reference number this will eventually become the contract number; The date by which documents must be returned (A minimum of 1 week should be allowed for submission); The contact details of the procurement staff member Responsible for the invitation/pre-qualification; Pre-qualification evaluation criteria. The evaluation criteria will be clearly defined in the pre-qualification document. The pre-qualification contractors list should be based solely on the criteria so defined. Pre-Qualification of Contractors A pre-qualification document shall be issued to all firms that responded to the advertisement or notice. All the responses to the advertisement shall be subjected to a pre-qualification process. The pre-qualification scrutiny should determine the technical, managerial and financial capacity as well as confirm the previous experiences in performing similar projects and ultimately their suitability as prospective bidders for the projects. There should be standardization of specifications in order to ensure that a common denominator is used to determine prequalification of all respondents. There should be a pre-qualification Evaluation Committee made up of professionals. The Secretary of the Tenders Board should serve as the Secretary of the Committee, while a representative of BMPIU would monitor compliance with Due Process guidelines. Where necessary, pre-bid meetings should be organized with prospective contractors in order to clarify any points or issues in the bidding documents. Bids shall not be altered after submission.

Invitation to Bid After consideration of the report of the pre-qualification Evaluation Committee, all the qualified contractors should be issued with the Bid Document to enable them bid for the contract. A period of 2 weeks from the date of invitation to bid shall be allowed for the submission of completed bids. BID opening and Financial Evaluation The following guidelines should be used for bid opening and financial evaluation:

Opening of tender must be done in public at a designated date and time. The opening should immediately follow the closing of the bidding period to minimize the risks of bid tampering. The bidders or their representatives must be present at the bid opening session.

The tender that offers the lowest most responsive bid shall be awarded the contract.

Due Process Certificate: As soon as the contract process has been concluded and the award of contract approved, a DUE PROCESS CERTIFICATE shall be issued by Budget Monitoring unit (BMPIU), one copy of which would be sent to Managing Director and another to the Tenders Board to enable it issue a certificate of award of contract. For contract exceeding N5million, a Due process Certificate shall be issued by the BMU before the memo is forwarded to the Managing Director for approval. 10.7 Stages Of works/ Completion Certification once a project is initiated and mobilization paid, all further payments shall be conditional upon certification by the BMU and the Project Monitoring Unit. Each Certification simply confirms that satisfactory progress is being made

toward completion of the work. To this end, the Project Implementation Committee is required to submit a technical and financial progress report to enable BMU/PMU effectively evaluate the value for the money to be released. The Project Implementation Committee (PIC) must notify BMU about the certification schedules for each project in order to minimize overall administrative demands of the certification process. For issuance of the first certification after mobilization, BMU/PM would confirm that the value of work done is commensurate with the initial mobilization paid. The basis for subsequent certification shall be: a. Funds released earlier have been fully utilized. b. Site visit has been carried out as agreed in the contract c. Contract work is being carried out as agreed in the contract d. Percentage of work completed is commensurate with funds spent. e. Anticipated project results are being achieved or if not, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure that results and goals identified under the contract are fully achieved. Finalization of Internal Due process Cycle: The Project Implementation Committee must submit the records of aggregate certificates issued in the preceding month to BMU/PMU for the procedural oversight along with the necessary reports, facts and information to enable BMU/PM complete the due process cycle for each capital project. Certification Schedule for Projects above N5million: For capital projects and payments above N5 million thresholds, the BMU/PMU retains sole certification mandate.

Before the submission of any memorandum to the Board of Directors for the award of any contract above N5 million, it is mandatory to obtain a Due Process Certificate from BMU. The guidelines for contract award certification under this threshold would be the same as for all contracts above N500, 000.00. The procedure for certification shall be that each spending unit shall notify BMU when it plans to commence the contract award process for contracts above N5million. BMU experts would monitor the procurement process from the point of advertisement, pre-qualification, invitation to bid and selection of successful bidder. Certification by BMU will be based on satisfactory adherence to all aspects of the procurement guidelines by the Company component units. A copy of the certification will be sent to the relevant Department and another copy to the Managing Director. After the payment of mobilization fee, all further payments are conditional upon the certification by PIC in conjunction with the BMU/PMU that satisfactory progress is being made toward completion of the work. Project Managers are required to prepare and submit to the BMU a technical and financial progress report with advice on possible modifications, cost implications and timing for completion to enable the BMU effectively evaluate value-for-money to be released. Certification by BMU requires the Project Managers to notify the BMU about certification schedules for each project in order to minimize overall administrative demands of the Certification process. Each capital project shall not have more than 5 aggregate certificates. The basis of certification under this threshold shall be that:

Funds released earlier have been fully utilized. Site visit has been carried out to assess progress of work on contract.

Contract work is being carried out as contained in the contract agreement.

Percentage of work completed is commensurate with funds spent. Anticipated project results are being achieved or if not, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure that results and goals identified under the contract are fully achieved.

Variation: Once a contract has been awarded, variation on the original contract sum may be allowed only if any of the following conditions arises: (i). Addition to the original scope of work (ii). Significant increase in the cost of materials estimated for the project provided the initial mobilization to the contractor is not more than 50%

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