Project Preparation & Financing

Proven Project Delivery and Financing

Led by our ‘Handbook of Project Management Practices’ (applied globally in all MWH offices and projects worldwide) we base our project management/ backstopping activities on, among other, the following key principles:

• Right person - right job;
• On every project uncertainty is certain;
• Lack of clarity kills projects;
• Good project planning requires details;
• Use of consistent practices and standard tools.

Manage the Project

MWH uses a project management system called “Manage the Project” (MTP), which is part of overall Project Delivery System (PDS). MTP includes a variety of procedures and templates to be used in specific stages of the project cycle (some of them will be presented below). The MTP system is a comprehensive set of practices and procedures used to manage the MWH projects, in all of our global offices, in a consistent way, from the project planning, execution and close-out. The MWH Project Director is the person responsible for ensuring that these practices are used in each individual project.

Team Leader Manual

For all Team Leader (TL) on EU-funded projects implemented by MWH we provide a tailor-made tool for facilitating and shortcutting their efforts in their new job - ‘Team Leader Manual’. Moreover, it draws the attention of the TL to a number of specific issues that (if appropriately handled from the start) can potentially save a lot of trouble during the implementation phase.

It provides a clear overview of all the implementation phases on an EU-funded project and strictly follows the relevant EU documents, guidelines and practices (PRAG, Project Cycle Management Guidelines, EU Visibility Guidelines, Logical Framework Approach, etc).

Project Financing

MWH has a large and highly experienced team of accountants, bookkeepers, internal auditors and financial officers, who have more than 15 years’ experience of managing the finances of donor-funded projects. In line with the best project management practices, MWH has a strict process for project management which includes the preparation and management of project-specific budgets and cash flow. Each project within MWH is managed by a dedicated Project Manager, responsible for preparing and control of project budget.

The project budget generally includes three types of expenses, namely: (i) Expertise (person days) costs, which are expenses linked to the mobilisation of the experts required for the project implementation; (ii) Reimbursable expenses, for fee-based contracts only, which are expenses reimbursed by the Contracting Authority. These are specified in the Terms of Reference, require prior approval by the Contracting Authority (for categories 2,4,5 and 6) and are reimbursed based on acceptable receipts/vouchers and within the maximum allocation available and (iii) Non-billable costs, which are expenses that are not reimbursed by the Contracting Authority. These typically include the project management time, the cost of flight tickets for deploying experts, for the employment of administrative staff (office manager), office costs etc.