I joined ABUCO Ltd as a Graduate Civil Engineer in August 2018 Essay

I joined ABUCO Ltd as a Graduate Civil Engineer in August 2018. At the time the company had financial

problems and cashflow due to lack of projects, so salaries weren’t coming on time. This led to a

demonstration by craftsmen since they were to be paid every two weeks. After a few months the company

received an invitation to tender a bid for the Proposed Construction of a Warehouse and Offices for

Bollore Logistics and the Proposed Construction of Rwanda Motor Industrial Facilities.

Given I was the

only Anglophone as compared to my workmates who were all Francophones and the tender documents

were in English and the bid was also to be prepared in English, I was tasked by the Chief Civil Engineer to

be in charge of the bid preparation, read all the tender documents, and prepare all the documents that

were required for the company to submit the bid to the client.

I had never prepared a bid before, so I had to read a lot to make sure we submitted a perfect bid capable

of competing with other construction companies.

I paid attention to all the timelines stated in the tender

documents and informed all the members I was working with about the deadlines that we had to beat. The

key to being successful in this bid was to follow the evaluation criteria stated in the terms of reference,

which was split into two; the technical offer which was to score 60% and the financial offer which was to

score 40%. The technical offer included description of the company’s profile, understanding of the

requirements for services, proposed approach, methodology, proposed personnel for the construction

projects, and the equipment owned by the company. The financial offer included priced bill of quantities in

a single currency inclusive of value-added tax. I prepared the technical offer and the Chief Civil Engineer

was in charge of preparing the financial offer. We were able to complete the tasks and submit the bid on

time. I left no room for error because these tenders were key to making our construction company

financially stable. we submitted both bids on time and received feedback after a month that we were

among the final three companies. The Managing Director and the Chief Engineer were called for a

meeting with the client where they were told to revise the unit prices and submit again. On revision of the

unit prices, we were awarded the contract for supply and fix for Bollore Logistics Warehouse and a

contract for fix only for Rwanda Motor Industrial Facilities.

With the company now in a financially stable position after winning two big contracts, the company staff

were all given a pay raise. To date, the salaries come on time and the cashflow is smooth, allowing for

running of the day to day activities of the company. My commitment to work and willingness to learn even

when given challenging tasks has put the company in a better situation.