My Kosovo Project

You all might have noticed that my communication has been somewhat slow over the last month. Well, most of that has to do with one man: Hashim Thaci. On the 17th of February he, being the Prime Minister of Kosovo, declared independence from Serbia following a unanimously passed vote in the Kosovo parliament on the same day, sparking a wave of international reactions. Some prominent countries, such as the United States, France and Germany quickly endorsed the declaration, whilst others, most notably Serbia and Russia, rejected the intentions citing that it was “a terrible precedent breaking up the entire system of international relations which have taken centuries to evolve”.

There was another small little consequence on that February day and we felt it right here in Calle Bravo Murillo were the office of my consultancy can be found. A week before the declaration of independence I had received a fax telling us that we had been short-listed for a Kosovo project where the main aim was strengthening the Ministry of Local Government to make sure that Kosovo municipalities work together with their counter parts across the border. It seemed tough enough before the declaration and then seemed impossible after.

Forming a consortium
I will briefly explain a bit how a company can win a contract. We work with an institution called EuropeAid which funds all kinds of projects, mostly outside the European Union. At the office I am responsible for finding projects in the Balkans and Eastern Europe, occasionally getting as far as Russia and its former satellite countries. That is my terrain. When I identify a potentially interesting project (which I do on EuropeAid’s website) – we specialize in the strengthening of young transitional Local Governments who are in need of capacity building – I have to find other consultancies to work with as projects often need additional companies with other specific specialities. This forming of consultancies is exactly like forming a football team in Secondary School during gymnastic class. Everybody wants to have the strongest on board and it is often the case of who holds his hand up the highest to achieve this.

After finding an interesting project – such as the Kosovo one – the newly established consortium of companies has to write a so-called ‘Expression of Interest’ which highlights our expertise through the provision of project references which we have collected over the years. These references have to fit the requisites as set out by the project directors.

Shortlisted
Then a special committee evaluates all the ‘Expressions of Interest’ it has received, which can amount up to 30. It chooses between 5-8 consortiums which in their view fit the project best. When this happens you have been shortlisted. You are then required to write a ‘Technical Offer’ outlining how you will design and implement the project in the field. This document – over 100 pages long – should provide country profiles, project backgrounds, planned activities, objectives and results, expected risks and assumptions and crucially, the proposed team of experts.

When you are shortlisted one of the most essential tasks is to find the best experts to implement the project. The quality of these people makes up for almost 70% of your chances of winning the project. If you have the best experts, you will almost certainly win the project. Normally, the team of experts consists of three people, but this varies. To find the best you have to search though hundreds of CV’s making my job also a bit of Human Resource. Even when you have found the best you will need to negotiate with him or her to offer the most competitive salary per working day.

For the Kosovo project I was in charge of writing this Technical Proposal and the selection of the Team. It was extremely interesting going through the whole process and equally fascinating researching the specific Kosovo context. Logically, the company with the best Technical (and Financial) Proposal will win the project. We feel we have made a good offer and that we have chances of getting the contract, I will know in a couple of weeks.