Role of Lender’s Engineer and Ways to Prevent Project Failures

The Lender’s Independent Engineer(LE) is an agent of lending institutions like banks or non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) that help you audit various projects (commercial or non-commercial) from the technical point of view whenever the developer seeks funding from the financial institution.

Before investing in any project financial institutions, bankers and investors plans to conduct thorough assessment for various aspects of investments to protect the interests of lenders and ensure the risk on lenders are minimised. It includes everything from technical, legal, commercial viability of the project, investors look for a proper due diligence to avoid risks and protect their interests.

It’s a process done by compliance teams and is hard-wired into funding proposals by developers. The main aim is to identify, mitigate, and hedge the lending institution’s risks regarding the various aspects of projects.

There are several risks involved that include whether the developer is capable of repaying the loan, using funds for business purposes or improving projects considering money disbursement.

Although, the RBI has not mandated any regulations over the appointment or functioning of LEs. The concerned stakeholders are responsible for the reports submitted by the LE.

Thus, the role of a Lender’s Engineer is a risk factor and compliance parameters of individual lending institutions.

Role of Lender’s Engineer

LE needs to visit the project site at regular intervals, provide a complete assessment of project and to give estimates to the lending institutions about the following:

• Physical status of the work implemented on the site.
• Judge and report the quantum of finance contributed and used for the project.
• Estimated expenditure for the project over observed progress.
• Review and comment of multiple Statutory Approvals and Clearances.
• Verify whether the borrower’s obligations comply with project-related licensing agreements.
• To check whether physical progress is in line with project implementation schedule and planned project timelines.
• Review the drawdown schedule for the planned project activity.
• To ensure the availability of necessary infrastructure and suitability of the borrowers’ organization and functional readiness of the project under execution.

We, Rakesh Narula & Co. (RNC) have a team of professionals who have a complete set of techno-commercial and financial management skills.

Along with providing security to lending institutions, the role of the Lender’s Engineer is to provide overall project monitoring and coordination by offering steady technical feedback.

All these inputs can help one to present an accurate and clear picture of the company’s growth.

They serve as an important component of risk management and value addition for developers who can help to reduce the chances of project failures due to the following:

• Conflicts with various participants in the project.
• Lack of information or inadequate knowledge of the project manager.
• Unclear decision-making skills among participants.

Atechno-commercial business agency should be proactive in identifying risks, leading to better planning and engineering. By doing so, you can save up to 10% on the project’s cost. To avail this benefit, make sure you choose a reputed Lender’s Independent Engineer in Vadodara!

Also read: LIEs – Important Connection Between Lenders and Developers

Skill required in a lender’s engineer:

Every project requires trained eyes and skilled hands to look into all areas involved in it. All these things should be brought to the notice of all stakeholders.

Technical analysis cannot be done without the use of technology. The appointed LE should be capable of using technological equipment to ensure sound risk management and progress mapping.

Also, the LE should be able to translate technical information into inputs relevant to the financial participants involved in the project, especially the payback period and factors that impact returns.

The LE has to provide expert insights on the availability of statutory approvals for projects. A deep understanding is required about the statutory aspects and approvals. Every Lender’s Independent Engineer should use a system to review approvals through predefined checklists.

After looking at all the above reasons, a professional project management firm with global exposure to local implementation is a necessity.

Despite this, the LE is a necessity and is expected to get a stamp of approval in return. It would help if you considered the LE as a partner in delivering a better product by both the project participants.

Failures are more public than success. To avoid project failures, you need the right dose of leadership, planning and resources to attain success. We have already given you a few ways toreduce the chances of project failures above, let’s continue with some more.

Ways to Avoid Project Failures

1) A lender’s engineer is considered to have the skills to handle every customer’s needs. It will help if you focus on the importance of initiating the project with utmost dedication.

Never rush to start the project, assuming that it will deliver results earlier. Prepare yourself for errors, omissions and reworks. It’s advisable to adopt proper development methodology and technology to avoid project failure.

2) Every project needs a comprehensive conceptual framework that speaks about risk management and focuses on issues and design choices to be made by the lender’s engineer.

A strong set of practical approaches accompanied by the right tools can help in managing risks proactively and effectively. It’s also important to work on the application and execution of discipline in day-to-day business and throughout the project.

3) Never try to control your project scope or rely on verbal agreements for any of the decisions taken for the desired project. Make a point to document your deals, actions, decisions and results to help you in the long run.

Ensure that all your project deliverables don’t clash with your client requirements. It has to go hand-in-hand.

4) To avoid risks, make sure you identify, analyse and respond to such issues at the earliest. Recognise your risk factors and all the potential problems at the starting stages and take appropriate actions before things go out of hand.

5) Building infrastructure is a daunting task. You need to give your best to make it work. We would advise you to use state-of-the-art forecasting techniques to prevent common issues like mismatched demand, overdesign or other poor decisions.

Evaluate your project using adverse scenarios like stress testing, monitoring and reporting processes to combat future risks.

Enrol an experienced Lender’s Independent Engineer to aid the company with substantial advantages that go beyond giving approvals to the projects.

The benefits of LE are not just limited to providing security to lenders but also offer risk management and value addition.

We hope this blog has helped you in acquiring good technical knowledge about why you should hire a LE.

The good news is: Bringing a LE can help you achieve better planning and value for your business. You can subsequently save up to 10% on project costs. Rely on RNC for all your needs!

About us:

Rakesh Narula & Co. (RNC) is a well-known and reputed name providing techno-commercial services as IRDA Licensed Category ‘A’ Insurance Surveyor & Loss Assessor and consultancy for valuation of fixed assets and current assets. RNC also acts as a Lender’s Independent Engineer and as a leading service provider for Techno-Economic viability studies.

Contact us now for services like asset and liquidation valuation, technical due diligence, chartered engineering services and other corporate finance and investment banking consulting services.