When it was announced that R&M had won the contract to build the Giant Dam Project,some of its institutional shareholders contacted Richard Markovnikoff,the chairman. They wanted reassurance that the company had fully taken the environmental issues and other risks into account. One fund manager asked if Mr Markovnikoff could explain the sustainability implications of the project to assess whether R&M shares were still suitable for his environmentally sensitive clients. Mr Markovnikoff said,through the company‘s investor relations department, that he intended to give a statement at the next annual general meeting (AGM) that he hoped would address these environmental concerns. He would also,he said,make a statement on the importance of confidentiality in the financing of the early stage working capital needs.
(a) Any large project such as the Giant Dam Project has a number of stakeholders.
Required:
(i) Define the terms ‘stakeholder’ and ‘stakeholder claim’, and identify from the case FOUR of R&M’s external stakeholders as it carries out the Giant Dam Project; (6 marks)
(ii) Describe the claim of each of the four identified stakeholders. (4 marks)
(b) Describe a framework to assess the risks to the progress of the Giant Dam Project. Your answer should include a diagram to represent the framework. (6 marks)
(c) Using information from the case,assess THREE risks to the Giant Dam Project. (9 marks)
(d) Prepare the statement for Mr Markovnikoff to read out at the AGM. The statement you construct should contain the following.
(i) A definition and brief explanation of ‘sustainable development’; (3 marks)
(ii) An evaluation of the environmental and sustainability implications of the Giant Dam Project; (8 marks)
(iii) A statement on the importance of confidentiality in the financing of the early stage working capital needs and an explanation of how this conflicts with the duty of transparency in matters of corporate governance. (6 marks)
Professional marks for layout, logical flow and persuasiveness of the statement. (4 marks)
(e) Internal controls are very important in a complex civil engineering project such as the Giant Dam Project.
Required:
Describe the difficulties of maintaining sound internal controls in the Giant Dam Project created by working through sub-contractors. (4 marks)