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Geoff French, the next president of FIDIC, writes on plans for 2011
Annual Conference 2011
The FIDIC Annual Conference for 2011 has been moved to Davos, Switzerland, from October 2 to October 5 2011. The decision to move the venue from Tunis was taken reluctantly but was considered vital given the perceived risk and uncertainty in North Africa at this time.
Although the location of the Conference has been changed its previously announced theme of “local resources - global perspectives” remains the same. Two years ago, when the annual conference was in London, there was very strong attendance from the UK and FIDIC hopes that this will be the case again this year.
FIDIC Contracts
Two major FIDIC Contracts Users Conferences have taken place in the last few months. In December a Users Conference in London attracted some 250 delegates and in January the first ever MDB Contract Users Conference attracted a similar number of delegates to Brussels. Both conferences combined users, drafters and lawyers and proved to be very informative and very useful.
The present situation on the planned new FIDIC contracts and guides are as follows:
- A guide to the already issued Greenfield DBO contract is about to be published;
- A brownfield DBO contract is being discussed;
- A Project Procurement Guide is in its final draft;
- Revised Consultancy JV and Sub Consultancy agreements are almost ready;
- The major task underway is a comprehensive update of the 1999 suite - the yellow, red and silver books. The yellow book is being addressed first with a review version planned for early 2012;
- Another task group is just getting started on a review of the Dredging Contract.
Sustainability
There is much good work going on around the world on the issues of sustainability. However, many countries are now using different approval rating systems which can be difficult to compare and many have no clear targets for the level of sustainability to be achieved in each sector.
FIDIC is seeking to address these various issues by producing at least two new documents in the next couple of years. The first to appear will be PSM2 - a practical guide to incorporating sustainability issues into project appraisals. It is intended to follow this with a publication setting out the overall standards that should be achieved in each sector - such a document will take some time to research and produce and the target is to publish it in time for the FIDIC 2012 conference in Seoul.
FIDIC’s new Climate Change Task Force is also reviewing if it is realistic to produce an accepted basis for the future impacts of climate change (e.g. sea level rise, storm frequency and intensity, temperature changes).
Integrity
To promote the FIDIC code of ethics and values more effectively FIDIC’s Integrity Committee is producing FIDIC’s Integrity Management System (FIMS). FIMS will provide guidance on compliance issues and help member firms demonstrate that they have appropriate integrity management systems in place. This issue has become even more important as clients and governments seek to implement stricter sanctions on anybody or firm found to have been involved in corrupt practices.
Meetings with MDBs
FIDIC meets each of the major MDBs (World Bank, EBRD, IADB, ADB, AfDB) at least once a year to raise issues of concern to its member associations and member firms.
At the most recent round of meetings FIDIC has been pressing the MDBs to clarify the issues around integrity. In particular the MDBs have been asked to identify the minimum due diligence requirements in pursing, submitting proposals and performing contracts, to reduce the risk of being exposed to corrupt activities by rogue members of staff or associated firms and hence the risk of possible debarment. This issue has, of course, become even more important now that the major MDBs have introduced cross debarment. These discussions with the MDBs will continue until the appropriate due diligence requirements are adequately identified. The possibility of using the new FIDIC Integrity System, FIMS, as a compliance tool is also being discussed with the MDBs.
The discussions with the MDBs have also covered the sustainability issues outlined earlier, capacity building (one of the issues for this year’s FIDIC conference), the introduction of in-country procurement programmes, the control of NGOs doing infrastructure work, QBS and innovation.
Advocacy
FIDIC is seeking to produce more practical guidance to assist Member associations’ advocacy activities. This issue is being considered by FIDIC’s membership committee which is widening its remit to address ways to enhance the support offered to current member associations.
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