Delivering solutions – HKA provides a series of training workshops to Tekfen Construction

Husam Gawish and Colin Russell from HKA’s Doha office are delivering a series of in-house training workshops on ‘contract and claims management’ to Turkish Contractor, Tekfen Construction (Tekfen). HKA was engaged by Tekfen to deliver this training programme to several of its project site offices across the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

The training was instigated by senior management of Tekfen’s contract department at its Istanbul headquarters office in order to build the capacity of project personnel with regards to the efficient management of contract and claims issues encountered during the execution of projects. The aim of the training programme, as stated by Tekfen’s contract department, is to achieve the following objectives:

• Reinforce the knowledge of participants in respect of general commercial terms and conditions of construction contracts (including subcontracts).
• Improve the skills and capabilities of participants with respect to reading, understanding, reviewing, administering and negotiating contracts and claims.
• Familiarise participants with actual case studies from Tekfen’s global portfolio of projects and to disseminate experience relating to contract and claims management.
• Develop Tekfen’s internal procedures relating to contract management and to ensure consistency of contract management applications at all levels within the company.
• Ensure compliance with Tekfen’s corporate procedures and by-laws.
• Improve communication and increase cooperation between Tekfen’s contracts departments at its head office and various project locations.
• Contribute to the strengthening of Tekfen’s corporate culture.

The interactive training programme has been designed in such a way to encourage participation from attendees throughout the two-day sessions. Colin and Husam successfully delivered the training to Tekfen project personnel at two locations in Saudi Arabia and Qatar and in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Some of the projects being executed by Tekfen at these locations include two major pipeline projects in Saudi Arabia, a world cup stadium and a major road project in Qatar, and the Ministry of Taxation Building in Azerbaijan.

The training was well received by participants as demonstrated by the excellent feedback received at each training site. One of the most exciting aspects of the workshops was trainees seizing the opportunity to discuss and debate ‘real’ project issues with HKA’s trainers. This proved to be extremely helpful as advice on how to go about resolving numerous commercial and contractual issues was gratefully received by Tekfen staff.

Planned training at Tekfen project sites in Kazakhstan, Russia and once again in Qatar as well as a tailor-made workshop for senior management at Tekfen’s Istanbul headquarters office, has been delayed by the current COVID-19 outbreak but will resume once the situation returns to normal.