EIGHT ENGINEERS FROM HIDROINŽENjERING JOINT STOCK COMPANY SUCCESSFULLY PASSED INTERNATIONAL TRAINING WITH THE TOPIC – PRACTICAL USE OF FIDIC CONTRACTS, MODULE 1
A considerable number of the contracts of “Energoprojekt Hidroinženjering Joint Stock Company” comprises the complex infrastructure projects in the field of construction of the new facilities, as well as reconstruction, rehabilitation and adaptation of the existing hydropower plants, dams, water management and environmental protection. Such projects, as well as the projects financed from the funds of world financial institutions such as: the World Bank (WB), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the German Development Bank (KfW), etc. are mostly implemented in accordance with the FIDIC contracts.
It is clear that for implementation of the consulting services which are offered by “Energoprojekt Hidroinženjering” to the institutional investors for the complex, infrastructure projects, the professional expert staff is of the greatest importance, not only in the domain of the technical knowledge, but also in the domain of knowledge and application of all elements of FIDIC, including the terms of the contract, as well as the procedures in different situations of the contract implementation. In addition, the internationally recognized certification of the engineers in the knowledge and application of FIDIC contracts increasingly appears lately, as the new requirement for the participants in the local and international tenders.
Bearing everything above mentioned in mind, as the company that is continuously devoted to development of the competence of its employees – on the one hand and following the market demands – on the other hand, in mid-October, “EP Hidroinženjering” sent a team consisting of eight specialists for training with the topic: “Practical Application of FIDIC Contracts, Module 1”. The team consisted of the engineers with many years of experience: Nenad Turković, Žarko Mrkić, Vera Slović, Vladimir Jovandić, Jovan Bolić, Ivana Dmitrović, Sanja Šteković and Radivoje Cvetičanin.
The training organized by ACES (Association of Consulting Engineers of Serbia – of which Energoprojekt is a founder and a regular member), was conducted by the international expert – the engineer Zoltan Zahonyi. During two days – i.e. on October 12th and 13th, 2022, the “EP Hidroinženjering” experts had an opportunity to get systematically familiarized with the important elements of FIDIC contracts, such as: contractual parties and contractual documents, management of FIDIC contracts, variations, adjustments, claims, discussions, suspensions and termination of the contracts, all based on the example of FIDIC Red Book. The specific characteristics of FIDIC Yellow Book and Silver Book, as well as the innovations from 2017 edition, were also discussed.
According to the information obtained from the course participants, the training met the expectations. “For those coming across FIDIC for the first time, I assume it was not easy to follow the presentation. Fortunately, for the past 18 years, I have had the opportunity to work and conduct the projects in accordance with FIDIC contracts, so this training, in addition to the international certificate, meant a lot to me primarily in the sphere of exchanging the opinions and experiences with the lecturer and the other participants”, says Nenad Turković, a graduate electrical engineer, Head of the Business Operations Planning and Monitoring Service. “All 4 international training modules which are offered by ACES are excellent and we plan to apply for the next training modules as soon as they would be organized.”
In the opinion of Žarko Mrkić – the Director for Projects Implementation at “EP Hidroinženjerig” and one of the participants in this training, the greatest contribution of the training was related to the work on the case studies. “In theory, FIDIC seems clear, simple and logical above all. However, the examples from the practice can be considerably more complex and challenging, where the approach to the potential problems depends on the role and the position in the process and the results depend on the way of thinking and acting, timely reactions, proactive actions, etc.”
Sanja Šteković, a graduate civil engineer, was particularly interested in the tasks they solved in the groups. “According to the way of thinking and proposing of the solutions to the specific problem on which we worked jointly, it could be easily concluded who is dealing with what at the project – whether he is an Employer, whether he comes from the Contractors company or works as the Project Manager (PM)”.
This international training, together with the ACES local training with the topic “Examples from the Practice” (from November 2022), which was attended by three engineers, represent the beginning of the new training cycle for FIDIC which “EP Hidroinženjering” is planning in the forthcoming period.