CESA hosted the Practice Notes Webinar on Wednesday, 27 December, and it was another insightful session for member companies. Facilitated by CESA’s Contractual Affairs Manager, Wally Mayne, the speakers in this session included distinguished industry professionals who have contributed immensely to the organization. The welcome and opening remarks were provided by Mayne, who stressed the importance of the CESA Practice Notes, which can be applied by member companies looking to grow their businesses.

The first speaker of the day Francis Gibbons who presented on the topic ‘Alternative business structures for consulting engineering practices’. Gibbons is a professional civil engineer and project manager with over 40 years' experience in the consulting field, his topic touched largely on Practice Note 52 and Practice Note 68. “Practice Note 67's purpose is to clarify the implications of a partnership, company, or close corporation as the corporate structure of a consulting engineering practice,” he stated.

Aon South Africa’s Senior Legal & Risk Advisor, Sam Varela also joined us, presenting the topic ‘Potential insurance risks when working in joint ventures’. In her presentation, Varela stated, “When you enter into an agreement in the form of the Joint Venture. JV Members will incur certain rights and obligations in terms of the joint venture agreement, namely joint and several liability”. Providing further insight, she stated that both the professional indemnity and public liability policies are third party liability policies.

The final speaker on the day was Wayne Hunt, Lead Engineer at Knight Piésold who presented the topic ‘Good business practice’. "The purpose of Practice Note 55 is to ensure compliance, commercial and strategic considerations when establishing a new Consulting Engineering practice, stated Hunt.” He further mentioned the importance of Practice Note 37, which is to promote a uniform and consistent procedure for issuing invoices, facilitate payment, steps when faced with non-payment or unduly delayed payment by an organ of the state."

The CESA Practice Notes have been compiled by experienced consulting engineering practitioners to assist members in managing enterprise risk as well as guiding good business practice.

The latest revision of these Practice Notes includes the extensive review and updating of all the Practice Notes (92) as well as improved search capabilities in the following categories:

Clients and Appointments (22)
Construction Stage (14)
Good Business Practice (17)
Legal Responsibility (12)
Professional Conduct (8)
Quality and Risk Management (19)

The updated Practice Notes can be found on the CESA website at https://www.cesa.co.za/practice-notes/  

Please note that the CESA Practice Notes are reserved for members only and hence require a member user name and password, that can be obtained from Gillian Wands at gillian@cesa.co.za or by calling 011 463 2022.