APPOINTED INDEPENDENT CERTIFIER

INDEPENDENT CERTIFIER – GUARANTEEING EFFECTIVE GOVERNANCE.

Arup was appointed as the Independent Certifier (IC) for the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link project in October 2006. It will play a significant role on the project over the five year period, during which Arup will have an average of 20 full time employees working on the project. Arup has also appointed three groups of local consultants to assist. These include a payment certification sub-consultant joint venture, headed up by Davis Langdon, with Crane and LDM assisting them, an architectural sub-consultant, Architectural Design Associates (ADA) and a Mechanical and Electrical sub-consultant joint venture between Spoormaker and DTM.

Arup Project Director for the Gautrain Project, Ric Snowden, notes that the Gautrain Project is currently the largest Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Project in the southern hemisphere. A Concession Agreement has been signed between the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG), the concessionaire, the Bombela Concession Company and a number of Lenders. Effectively, there is joint ownership of the project whereby Bombela is responsible for designing, building and operating Gautrain for 15 years.

As the name states, the role of an independent certifier requires the company to be independent; therefore, Arup is not allowed to have any conflicting role in the project. Arup has to certify all the work that is carried out on the project. It’s basic responsibilities, in terms of the IC Agreement, include: certifying milestones, high level monitoring of construction and review of designs, certifying that operating commencement dates for phases one and two have been achieved, and issuing a certificate of final completion.

A key role for Arup is the certification of milestones. Once a month Bombela submits a statement in which the company claims the milestones that they believe are complete and due for payment. Payment to Bombela is based on more than 1 000 milestones over the duration of the contract. A typical example of a milestone could be that the company has placed the order for railway tracks. Once they believe this milestone is reached, Bombela will submit the relevant documentation to the IC. Arup is responsible for going through the milestones that are put forward for approval and interrogating them by looking at the criteria for achievement in terms of the Concession Agreement and then deciding independently if the criteria have been met. If that is the case, Arup then approves the milestone.