By Sami Zaptia.
Tripoli, 19 December 2013:
Speaking on the final day of the Arab Structural Engineering Conference in Tripoli yesterday, AECOM’s . . .[restrict]Senior Vice President & Programme Director – Libya HIB, Chris Toomey, said that “projects have a (positive) multiplier effect on an economy and vice versa”.
Explaining the importance of time management and the effect of the efficient management of projects and a series of projects (what he called programmes), Toomey said that delays to projects have a negative effect on an economy.
There is “an opportunity cost” to delayed projects and lost time. Therefore it was “essential to manage time loss”.
He explained that programme management was more about the strategic management of a series of projects whilst project management was more about the tactical management of a project.
Citing housing projects as an example, Toomey said that these are known to normally have a “20-30 percent benefit on the economy” and that, for example, a LD 100 million housing project should have approximately LD 20-30 million benefit on the economy.
The delay of implementing such projects would conversely have a LD 20-30 million loss to the economy, Toomey explained.
Speaking days after his company had announced its return to Libya, the AECOM Senior Vice President explained that AECOM’s main role with their client, the Housing and Infrastructure Board (HIB) is to help with old “challenges” in capital expenditure, construction contracts, invoice payments processes, procurement and general processes and procedures.
AECOM will also help Libya in the rapid restart of its “priority projects” and “quick wins” as well as a public outreach programme to help keep the general public better informed about HIB progress.
AECOM will also help with training and capacity building during the programme management.
With regards to “priority projects”, Toomey said that AECOM will help HIB reassess its projects and that would be based on project suitability, contract assessment and performance assessment.
Only after contracts have been “re-baselined” based upon the above criteria could a decision be made as to weather a project will continue, Toomey explained.
The criteria for the continuation of a project and who and how this decision is made attracted some discussion during the question session after Mr Toomey’s presentation.
Toomey was keen to stress that the HIB will be the decision-maker with regards to which projects are terminated and which are continued and which are prioritized.
Asked by Libya Herald as to when exactly AECOM would re-start work in Libya and if it would confine itself initially to Tripoli only, Toomey answered the first question only, saying that a team from AECOM should be arriving in January and that mobilization would follow that shortly afterward. [/restrict]
