Managing Innovation programme shows great depth
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 The FIDIC 2010 New Delhi Conference (www.fidic2010.org), the consulting engineering industry's premier event, takes place in Incredible India on 19-22 September. Plenary sessions, seminars and workshops over three days will examine how the consulting engineering industry is responding to the need for innovation, how organisations are handling the consequences of innovation, and the approaches being developed to ensure that innovation is managed correctly at all levels, from the project level, through to firms and organisations, up to the industry level and by society as a whole. With the consulting engineering industry facing numerous challenges, it is vital that new trends and new tools are fully understood, and experience shared, to be able to move forward with greater confidence. A broad range of international speakers from both the private and public sectors will share their thoughts and experiences. The business programme starts with a plenary session Delivering Innovation in Projects to set the scene with Dr. Srikumar Banerjee, Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, India, Harrie Noy, CEO, Arcadis, Netherlands, Heikki Pikkarainen, President, Poyry MC, Finland, Mangu Singh, Director, Delhi Metro Rail, describing how consulting engineers and their partners are responding to the need for innovation.
Special conference rates for hotel accommodation have been extended up until the conference, which takes place in the recently refurbished Vigyan Bhawan that is strategically located in Lutyens Delhi, one of New Delhi's most beautiful districts near the President's Estate and India Gate close to the main conference hotels. Special feature of the conference include a special area devoted to explaining FIDIC contracts, an extensive Young Professionals programme and a series of carefully selected excursions for accompanying persons. The Government of India is fully engaged, with Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil (see photo), President of India, who is renowned for her support of the underprivileged sections of society, opening the conference.
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Mexico celebrated 25th anniversary
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 The FIDIC Executive Committee participated in the CNEC-Mexico 25th Anniversary conference that focussed on the role of the engineer in infrastructure development. Newly elected CNEC President Mauricio Jessurun Solomou (shown on the right in the photo with Gregs Thomopulos, FIDIC President) spoke warmly of the close collaboration between FIDIC and its members, and highlighted the growing opportunities in Latin America that offered new options for collaboration, a message that was reinforced by Rene Ureta Quintana from Chile, the newly elected FEPAC President. FIDIC has been working hard to encourage Central and Latin American countries to join, or in some cases re-join, FIDIC, thereby strengthening industry representation in this important region. There were positive responses from Argentina, Chile, Columbia, El Salvador, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela and Brazil followed up a few days later with an application for readmission as a Member Association. Other proposed new members announced in the 2010 General Assembly Meeting (New Delhi; 22 September) draft agenda circulated to members in late-July 2010 (see News item) were the Joint Consultative Council for the Construction Industry, Trinidad and Tobago, as an Associate Member and the Uzbekistan Association of Consulting Engineers as a Member Association.
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A round-table organised by the pan-American federation FEPAC reviewed the challenges and strengths of Latin America's consulting engineering industry during the CNEC-Mexico 25th Anniversary celebrations in which FIDIC participated (see 
Using procurement procedures that recognise and incorporate best practice is essential for ensuring project quality. USIC-Switzerland awarded its first procurement procedures Best Practice Award in June 2010 to a local authority for the procurement of a bypass around the town of Nafels. In its citation, USIC noted that the Canton of Glaris, famous for its Landsgemeindegeschafte direct voting (see photo), had put in place procurement procedures that ensured selection on the basis of quality. Important were the clarity of the procurement documentation and conformance with industry guidelines for engaging consulting engineers. Peter Rauch, SWR, Switzerland, who chaired the award panel has agreed to help FIDIC's Business Practices Committee establish an international equivalent. The challenge will be to ensure that both private and public sector clients take part.
The FIDIC President, Gregs Thomopulos, and Managing Director, Enrico Vink, attended the annual meeting of the European federation EFCA, where the FIDIC President and the EFCA President, Dr Panos Panagopoulos (on the left of the photo, with Gregs Thomopulos), signed a new cooperation agreement (
Under European Union (EU) Directives the award of a public sector service contract must be based on the most economically advantageous tender or the lowest price. Quality based selection procedures where, for example, the scope of services and price are negotiated, cannot be used. Current procedures replaced a two-envelope system where the financial offers of prequalified firms were considered after technical proposals exceeded an 80-point threshold. To exacerbate the situation, new EU Member States have tended to choose lowest price as the only award procedure. The European federation EFCA in a strongly worded policy statement that has been circulated to members for comment has argued that, under current EU Directives, appropriate quality can only be achieved if clients preselect consultants on the basis of qualifications, use the most economically advantageous tender for the award of services, and give precise descriptions of the criteria used to assess economic advantage. The statement aims to convince "educated" clients that the cheapest consultant will provide neither the highest overall value nor the best possible outcome in terms of the total cost of ownership. FIDIC's Quality Based Selection 
With sanctions under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) swelling to USD 1200 million in the first few months of 2010 compared to USD 627 million in 2009, more government enforcement is envisaged in the US Financial Reform Act adopted on 15 July 2010 (President Obama is seen in the photo signing the Act into law) that would allow employee whistleblowers to receive up to 30% of fines. Similar stronger incentives for firms to self-report breaches have been announced for late-2010 for the World Bank's anticorruption Voluntary Disclosure Programme. This comes at a time when anticorruption legislation is becoming global and development bank debarment is on the increase (see 
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Relations with international organisations and the Multilateral Development Banks (MDB) received the usual close attention at the FIDIC Executive Committee meeting in Mexico City in May 2010, with UNCITRAL (see