...GUIDANCE FOR ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY FIRMS INTEGRATED CONTRACTS PREFACE Our industry is facing new integrated business models with increasing frequency. The processes driving these models are very different from the traditional model. An integrated project process implies high demands on teamwork and a focus on results. Such an integrated approach is also reshaping relationships among contractors, engineering consultants and clients. Moreover, it has an impact on the way they work together, and the liabilities and risks they assume. This guide is intended as a quick reference for engineering consultancy firms, working outside the traditional design-bid-build approach and contracting relationships. It is in their interest to understand the various roles they can play in the „new‟ delivery methods throughout all phases of project development as well as the risks and benefits such integrated project delivery methods entail. We would like to thank all members of the Internal Market Committee as well as everyone involved in the preparation of this guide for their useful contribution. Jan Bosschem EFCA President November 2011 2 CONTENTS 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Introduction: an increasing diversity of forms of contracts in construction projects in Europe .................................................................................................................... 4 Forms of Contract .....................................................................
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...The world trade organization is an organization can be looked at in a number of ways; firstly the WTO is an organization for trade opening; a forum where governments discuss trade agreements; and as platform for solving trade disputes. Further on, the WTO functions as a system of trade rules and as a place where member states sort out their trade issues among themselves. This organization was founded out of negotiations and its modus operandi is that of negotiation. Today, most of WTO’s current operations stem from the Uruguay Round as well as other negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). It is currently hosting the new negotiations that were birthed from the “Doha Development Agenda” of 2001 (Wto.org,. 2014). Where states have been confronted with trade barriers and want them lowered, deliberations at the WTO have facilitated opening of markets for trade. In conjunction, the WTO is not only about opening of new markets, it also supports maintenance of trade barriers- for instance where consumer rights are threatened or to prevent harm to the consumers. At the core of WTO are the agreements that have been negotiated and sealed by the majority of the world’s trading states. These agreements present the legal guidelines for international trade. They are in essence contracts that bind governments to maintain their trading rules within the set limits (Wto.org,. 2014).. While they are signed and negotiated by states, the aim remains to help the providers...
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...bids -act in good faith (can’t use undisclosed material) -they must accept the lowest qualified bid - can use privilege clause (the owner has privilege to not accept the lowest bid) Various forms in procurement: (request for expression of interest (RFEOI) Request for proposal - now frequently for construction law (RFP) - owner choose to cancel RFP anytime (e.g. too expensive etc). RFP less risk, but less certainty, b/e it’s not bound by a contract. Tenders/Request for quotation (RFQ) - process set out to be TRANSPARENT - be in trouble if say we wanted to choose u, but it was too expensive. How damages determined - Expectation damages - difference between price to do the work, and the price between.... Procurement process - procedures fair and transparent. Things u want to do when working with the lawyer: Consider objectives and expectations, be prepared to talk about what ur concerns, what needs to be done. Giving instructions - agreement, letter. Learn risk factors. Raise concerns. Deadline(timeliness). - budget concerns. Wherever u do smth - always keep records!! when u working with contractors, keep good writing records of what u r doing. What are my assumptions? risk? constraints? As much info as possible so that...
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...Data Privacy G.Maruthi What is data privacy? • Protection of personal data • Why do we need protect personal data? – The need to control personal data • • • • Fear of misuse Identity Theft Cases of Fraud Other form of cyber crimes What is Personal Information? • According to the European Directive on Data Protection – Article 2: “Personal Data shall mean any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable person is one who can be identified , directly or indirectly, in particular, by reference to an identification number or to one or more factors specific to his physical, physiological, mental economic , cultural or social identity” – Article 8: Personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade-union membership, data concerning health How collected? • Some examples: – Registering with email service – Online shopping – Online bill payment – Social networking – Online gaming Recent Incidents • The Vodafone Germany case (12 September 2013, BBC News): – Personal information of customers stolen by hackers – Affected – Two million – What kind of information? • • • • Names Addresses Bank Account Numbers and Birth Dates Recent Incidents • Adobe Data Stolen(4 October, 2013, BBC News): – Personal information stolen – About 2.9 million customers affected – Nature of information stolen • Encrypted customer passwords • Other private information ...
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...contribute resources or suggested changes contact the PSA Policy Team Restructuring and change management Toolkit for organisers and delegates This kit contains information and resources to help PSA organisers and delegates plan and organise around change. The first section of the kit provides guidance on the PSA approach to change and how we organise our activity. The second section brings together support materials to be used by organisers and delegates. Contents Our approach to change Planning our activity Sharing information Legal issues Collective agreement change clauses Members with grandparented terms and conditions Pregnant members and members on parental leave Redundancy tax credits 4 5 6 6 6 7 8 8 Support materials Organising checklist Flowchart of standard change process – consultation phase Flowchart of standard change process – implementation phase Advice from the legal team Examples of collective agreement change clauses Brief guidance on value for money and expenditure reviews Information sheet for members and delegates – role of the union in change processes Communications plan template Post-change de-brief sheet Submission tips and template for members Short change management development module Example of an additional engagement protocol 11 12 13 14 19 25 26 28 29 30 32 30 3 Our approach to change Change is a feature of modern organisations. All organisations operate in a dynamic environment and need to be responsive to government direction, client...
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...international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. At its heart are the WTO agreements, negotiated and signed by the bulk of the world’s trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.The WTO is an organization for trade opening. It is a forum for governments to negotiate trade agreements. It is a place for them to settle trade disputes. It operates a system of trade rules. Essentially, the WTO is a place where member governments try to sort out the trade problems they face with each other. The system’s overriding purpose is to help trade flow as freely as possible — so long as there are no undesirable side effects — because this is important for economic development and well-being. That partly means removing obstacles. It also means ensuring that individuals, companies and governments know what the trade rules are around the world, and giving them the confidence that there will be no sudden changes of policy. In other words, the rules have to be ‘transparent’ and predictable. The WTO is run by its member governments. All major decisions are made by the membership as a whole, either by ministers (who usually meet at least once every two years) or by their ambassadors or delegates (who meet regularly in Geneva).Trade negotiations- The WTO agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell out the principles of liberalization, and...
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... It wasn’t until 2010 that they finally let the cat out of the bag. With more and more sticky pedal cases being documented, Toyota knew they had to do something. There was simply way too many of these faulty pedals out on the road now, people were dying. In reaction to the situation, Toyota issued one of the largest recalls to actually fix these pedals. They now severely damaged their reputation, got hit with many fines, and one of the largest criminal penalties imposed on a car manufacturer. The corporation lost trust and hurt their reputation, they were now trying to rebuild and regain what they lost. A cultural change at Toyota would be a huge thing, how could a corporation with a strong culture that values secrecy be more transparent? Transparent culture was the exact opposite of what Toyota had developed. This would be a very difficult change but they knew they must do something. They needed to be more proactive of manufacturing issues and react to them faster, not being afraid to tell the world that they may have a...
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...Whenever a transaction of property takes place in the real estate industry, there is a purchase and sale agreement form that needs to be signed and agreed upon by both the buyer and seller. The form will have the terms and conditions, as outlined in Exhibit 2, of the sale. This is the same case whenever a landlord, should Charlie Leonard proceed to purchase the property, leases out his/her property to tenants; an agreement must be signed between the lessor and lessee that details all the terms and conditions of the lease. Both parties’ names will be listed on the top of the sale agreement and each will be classified as the “Seller” and “Buyer”. These two terms are used for the rest of the agreement to make transparent each side’s responsibilities. The buildings, structures, improvements, and fixtures are important as property age over time and so in certain circumstances, parts of the property (ex: windows, doors, fences) will need to be replaced. Again, the seller and buyer will discuss which side will be footing the cost of these repairs. Leonard, in Exhibit 1, has budgeted repairs to be around 5%, or roughly $2,200. One of the most important parts of the sale agreement is the purchase price, agreed upon by both the buyer and seller. A security deposit is necessary to show that the buyer is committed to this transaction while the payment is due whenever the transaction of the deed takes place. Title deeds also play an important factor as they consist of documents that show...
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...earlier negotiations under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). At the heart of the system — known as the multilateral trading system — are the WTO’s agreements, negotiated and signed by a large majority of the world’s trading nations, and ratified in their parliaments. These agreements are the legal ground-rules for international commerce. Essentially, they are contracts, guaranteeing member countries important trade rights. The goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business. The result is assurance. Consumers and producers know that they can enjoy secure supplies and greater choice of the finished products, components, raw materials and services that they use. Producers and exporters know that foreign markets will remain open to them. What it does. Trade negotiations The WTO agreements cover goods, services and intellectual property. They spell out the principles of liberalization, and the permitted exceptions. They include individual countries’ commitments to lower customs tariffs and other trade barriers, and to open and keep open services markets. They set procedures for settling disputes. Implementation and monitoring WTO agreements require governments to make their trade policies transparent by notifying the WTO about laws in force and measures adopted. Various WTO councils and committees seek to ensure that these requirements are being followed and that WTO agreements are being properly implemented. ...
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...1. What are the benefits of trading in Index Futures compared to any other security? Ans-An investor can trade the ‘entire stock market’ by buying index futures instead of buying individual securities with the efficiency of a mutual fund. The advantages of trading in Index Futures are: * The contracts are highly liquid * Index Futures provide higher leverage than any other stocks * It requires low initial capital requirement * It has lower risk than buying and holding stocks * It is just as easy to trade the short side as the long side * Only have to study one index instead of 100s of stock 2. What is the difference between open interest and volume? Ans-In the options market, two measurements describe the liquidity and activity of option contracts. Volume is the amount of contracts traded in a given period, and open interest is the number of open option contracts. Volume Trading volume is the number of option contracts being exchanged between buyers and sellers, and it measures the activity of options contracts. For example, assume the trading volume in call option ABC with a strike price of $55 and an expiration date in three weeks did not trade any contracts for a specified day. Therefore, the trading volume is 0. However, the next day, an investor buys 15 call option contracts and a market maker sells 15 call option contracts. The trading volume for that particular day is 15. Open Interest Open interest is the number of option contracts...
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...Daniel Holback Walden University Appropriate Use of Transparency in Organizations Organizational Transparency Transparency in economic terms refers to the degree of openness regarding information about the nature of transactions, terms of contractual agreements, the degree of financial interest, fiduciary obligation, the level of risk and degree of understanding of both nature and terms of business dealings. Organizational transparency gives employees an unfiltered insight into a company’s operations and future. It’s giving employees a voice. Silver (2005) states that In an age when nothing can be hidden for long, everything depends on trust and transparency (Silver, 2005). He also said that stakeholders were demanding that organizations become more transparent—which he defined as honesty and accuracy—not only “in the numbers they release but also in how they’re run” (p. 16). However, transparency also requires trust. Being transparent requires a willingness to be vulnerable because you can’t ensure how people will use the information you share. Therefore, organizations must also trust their stakeholders in order to risk being transparent. Appropriate Levels Healthy organizational culture is vital when it comes to the workplace according to Northouse (2013). According to Watschke (2015) using social media to drive organizational transparency helps build trust with stakeholders. He informs how social media dynamics may be forcing organizations to take another look at...
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...Aims and Motives | 5 | 3.1.2 | Benefits | 6 | 3.1.3 | Risks | 7 | 3.2 | Stakeholder | 7 | 4 | Impact of the USSFTA on Third Parties: The ASEAN Countries | 8 | 5 | Assessment of Implementation | 9 | 6 | Conclusion: Assessment of Success/Failure | 10 | 7 | Bibliography | 12 | 1. INTRODUCTION (Elea) In this report, we will analyze the impact of the US-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (USSFTA) on Singapore’s trade and on its relationships with its Asian neighbors. Singapore being the first South Asian country to enter into a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States, we wanted to focus our analysis on the impact on its trade only. Indeed, it is quite obvious that this agreement is beneficial for the US, but we thought it was interesting to study what advantages Singapore would get out of it. Also, Singapore being a member of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) since the 1960’s, we wanted to study how the USSFTA impacted these countries in particular. They are indeed Singapore’s closest, and most similar neighbors. Did they benefit from the agreement with the US as well? Did their relationship with...
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...In analyzing the Chile’s cultural dimension, it was exciting learning about all the social differences that distinctively identify the Chilean culture. While communication is universal throughout the world, the Chilean population primarily speaks Spanish along with other native languages spoken by the locals, opposed to the primary language of English spoken in the United States (US). Important to highlight is that in the Chilean culture some business agreements occur over casual conversation, and not in written form, it’s a verbal agreement that is honored, opposed to how business agreements are handled in the US, where contracts have to be a formal document (Kelm, 2011). Furthermore, religion in Chile and the US are similar in that a high...
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...mining by companies has also benefitted individuals’ health and financial safety. Not long after the use of data mining came into prominence the use of data mining consumer information vs. consumer privacy became a major issue in early 1998 after CVS and Giant entered into an agreement with Elensys, a Massachusetts direct marketing company, to send reminders to customers who had not renewed their prescriptions. However, neither CVS nor Giant explained how the program would work or received their customers' permission to transfer their prescription records to a third party (Pyatt Jr.). Giant and CVS’s rationale for entering into this agreement was “to develop a positive program to benefit consumers, many of whom don't take their medication properly,” (Pyatt Jr.). Even though their primary intention was good, Giant and CVS were not transparent about their agreement with Elensys to their customers. In fact, customers were completely unaware of the program until they had the chance to read about it in the Washington Post. This non transparency to their customers about how they would use their personal medical information led to major backlash from their consumer base and eventually the agreement with Elensys was ended. Elensys’ use of data mining for marketing...
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...shortcomings and act on them in order to be more responsible. One question one asks themselves when reading this book is: What is the responsibility of the companies? Normally companies will invest highly on maximizing their stakeholders. They will direct all their attention on their direct stakeholders and unfortunately focus less on their indirect stakeholders who matter as much too. We are given a perfect example in the book of Patagonia. It poses a challenge to the companies to take ultimate accountability for their deeds in relations to each and every one of their stakeholders. Among the customers’ checklist, one of them is being progressively open about the social and environmental impact of what you make. The company should be transparent to ensure customer satisfaction and business success. They have to ensure its consumers trust them, and they will earn this only through transparency. One other item on the customers’ checklist is to make things that help the commons. The company should ensure their products are user-friendly, and anyone can use them with ease. It will widen the market for their goods. The community checklist also states ways to ensure local involvement of the business, for instance, establish a community service policy benchmark and measure performance. The company should be of good service to the community as a whole. The company is also supposed to be in partner with...
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