The winners of the FIDIC Contracts Awards 2020 have been unveiled at a virtual awards ceremony which took place as part of the online FIDIC annual International Contract Users’ Conference on 1 December 2020.

The awards, now in their second year, recognise excellence in the use of FIDIC contract forms for project delivery and showcase examples of good practice through collaboration from across the world. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was more challenging than usual to attract entries for the awards but despite this, winners were announced across three categories.

The Project of the Year Award was won by the British Normandy Memorial for a special project to build a worthy British national memorial to the men and women who died on D-Day and during the subsequent Normandy campaign in the Summer of 1944. The memorial stands on rising ground in Ver-sur-Mer, Normandy, overlooking Gold Beach and although a British Memorial, it commemorates combatants from 38 different countries worldwide, who fought and died during the campaign.

Over 3700 tonnes of stone were used during construction. The main Memorial Court features eight-metre-high stone walls, hand-carved with quotes from the King, Churchill, de Gaulle and others. The engineer on the project was Michael Coombs of Alan Baxter Ltd and the contractor was Eiffage.

The structure and flexibility of the FIDIC Red Book Contract was perfect for this project especially as the team needed to work in France under British law, because of the terms and conditions imposed by the British government. A Highly Recommended citation was also awarded in this category to the Çerkezköy-Kapıkule Section of Halkalı-Kapıkule Railway project in Turkey.

International law firm White & Case won the Legal or Professional Services of the Year Award in recognition of their highly regarded work which includes the development and expansion of FIDIC contract forms on a global scale. The firm is widely seen as a leading adviser globally on all aspects of project procurement and delivery under the FIDIC contracts, regularly advising employers and contractors on the negotiation of FIDIC contracts, the administration of their terms and the avoidance and resolution of claims and disputes arising. A Highly Recommended citation was also awarded in this category to HKA Global Limited

Ellis Baker, global head of construction at White & Case is an authority on the FIDIC forms, with the legal directory Chambers UK 2021 stating that Baker “is the leading lawyer for the FIDIC suite of contracts”. Ellis is also the lead author of FIDIC Contracts: Law and Practice, which was recently cited with approval by the Supreme Court of England and Wales which described it as a “leading text on the widely used standard forms of international construction contract issued by FIDIC”.

The winner of this year’s Trainer of the Year Award was Taner Dedezade, who has been providing FIDIC training worldwide for the last decade. He has delivered training in Europe, USA, Africa and the Middle East, mainly delivering FIDIC training for contracts, claims and dispute adjudication boards. Dedezade has been repeatedly invited back to deliver further trainings for previous clients and has spoken at public seminars as well as many in-house training events for large multinational contractors and government departments. A Highly Recommended citation was also awarded in this category to Husni Madi.

Commenting on the awards, FIDIC chief executive Dr Nelson Ogunshakin said: “This second year of our FIDIC Contracts Awards was a great success in raising the profile of FIDIC contracts and those who use them. I am sure that this exciting initiative will further unite the global contract user community and will be an annual feature for years to come.”

The full shortlist for the 2020 FIDIC Contracts Awards was as follows: –

Project of the Year Award
British Normandy Memorial (France)
International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (France)
Çerkezköy-Kapıkule Section of Halkalı-Kapıkule Railway (Turkey)
New Houses of Parliament (Jamaica)
Tawfik Qeran (Yemen)
Toktogul Hydro Power Refurbishment Project (Kyrgyzstan)

Legal or Professional Services of the Year Award
Artyushenko & Partners boutique law firm (Kazakhstan)
Coz Jofré & Blavi (Chile)
Damian James Delay and Quantum Experts (South Africa)
Denis Rizaov (Republic of North Macedonia)
DWF LLP (Qatar)
HKA Global Limited (United Arab Emirates)
thinkproject UK (France)
White & Case (France)

Trainer of the Year Award
Hiromi Hoshi (Japan)
Husni Madi (Jordan)
Kevin Spence (South Africa)
Taner Dedezade (United Kingdom)