The role of an Independent Engineer (IE) or a Lenders’ Independent Engineer (LIE) in respect of an infrastructure development is primarily to provide assurance that the development, as planned and designed is suited to the envisaged operational functions, and can be delivered to accepted national and/ or international quality standards within the allocated time and cost budgets. An IE to the owner of an infrastructure facility is responsible for verifying that statutory obligations are met and that the installations will last the design life. An LIE may additionally have to assure the lenders that the installation can operate in a manner that can facilitate recovery of the loan.

• • Carry out an independent verification of planning, design, and operating capacity
• • Ensuring the disbursed funds being used to create the facilities described in the Business Plan
• • Confirming that the covenants and time frames are being met
• • Assuring the commitment of the borrower operating the managing contracts
• • Aligning the technical performance of the facility in line with the design
• • Justifying if the commissioning trials are proving this
• • Running quality checks on work with the lender recovering their money
• • Assessing any claims or other risks to capital cost occurring
• • Identifying the scale of claims and how likely is it they will need to be paid
• • Facilitating, questioning, and questioning very hard until we are convinced and is found to be true (demonstrating that it is true is very important)
• • Reminding ourselves that the reports we generate are only as good as the input data that we seek, the understanding that we derive and above all how we report these findings.