Through the extent of its experience and the quality of its relations with a great many public and private partners throughout the world, as well as its financial soundness, Conseil Santé is in a position to coordinate and manage the full range of engineering, consulting and training assignments requiring the involvement of multidisciplinary expert teams and the mobilisation of significant financial resources.
Conseil Santé's action is based on the close collaboration of three actors:
The Project Director, a permanent staff member based at Conseil Santé's head office, is responsible for the management and correct implementation of the contract vis-à-vis the Client, for whom s/he is the key contact person. S/he ensures the supervision of the technical team, mobilises the short-term experts, and organises the logistics and quality control of the reports and other deliverables. The Project Director, in consultation with the Team Leader, takes the important technical decisions, and makes field visits regularly and whenever necessary. S/he is assisted by a Deputy Project Director, ensuring that head office is permanently staffed by someone who is thoroughly familiar with the project and able to rapidly make the decisions that are at times necessary.
The technical team is made up of high level experts and specialists provided by Conseil Santé and, if need be, its specialised technical partners. It is under the responsibility of a Team Leader who is the daily contact person for the Client, and who acts in close collaboration with the Project Director.
The logistical and financial support from head office is ensured by a Contract Manager appointed from within Conseil Santé's Accounting and Finance Department.
The head office of SOFRECO - Conseil Santé's parent company - ensures that the projects have constant financial and logistical support.
Thanks to the financial soundness of the SOFRECO group, the Accounting and Finance Department can rapidly provide the field teams with the financing necessary to efficiently implement the activities set out in the contracts, particularly the regular payment of the experts and other local staff. It also ensures:
- the budgetary monitoring of the contracts;
- the financial management of the contracts for which Conseil Santé is the leader, member of a consortium or sole contracting party: bank guarantee, invoicing the client, collection, etc.
- the financial management of the consortium agreements for which Conseil Santé is the leader;
- the payment of per diem and accommodation allowances;
- if need be, the acquisition of office material and equipment for the experts and support staff.
The SOFRECO/Conseil Santé Logistics and Procurement Department ensures on behalf of the project teams, the purchase of the equipment or spare parts set out in the contracts: it identifies the suppliers, launches and examines the invitations to tender, and ensures the dispatch and customs clearance in full compliance with the funding agencies' procedures. The staff of this department have vast experience in European Commission and World Bank financed contracts, and a perfect command of their rules and procedures.
This same department ensures the organisation of the study trips that often accompany contract implementation. In collaboration with the Project Director and the Team Leader, it takes care of the participants' travel and accommodation, the planning organisation and, if necessary, the provision of interpreters.
Conseil Santé rapidly mobilises the expertise required by the projects
Conseil Santé can rapidly mobilise the specialised expertise that frequently proves necessary during project implementation. Similarly, Conseil Santé can rapidly provide a replacement when an expert, for reasons beyond its control, cannot ensure the assignment planned. Indeed, Conseil Santé has access to a database containing more than 20 000 experts of all disciplines and nationalities, set up and managed by the human resource department of its parent company, SOFRECO.
Furthermore, Conseil Santé has access to a vast network of experts of all specialisations through its partners:
- Public health institutions (public health schools and institutes, drug regulatory agencies, etc.) and / or medical research centres (teaching hospitals, university departments, etc.);
- Administrations and public bodies of developed, developing or transition countries;
- European consulting companies specialised, like Conseil Santé, in the implementation of projects in the health sector;
- Companies of the countries in which Conseil Santé carries out its assignments, which also aim to intervene at regional or international level, provided they have the appropriate structures and competences.
Conseil Santé controls the quality of the services provided by its field teams
Conseil Santé is constantly concerned with ensuring that the Client is provided high quality services, through:
- Regular contact of the Team Leader and Project Director with the Client, who remains the final judge of the quality;
- Backstopping assignments ensured by head office, particularly during the kick-off phase, then through periodic field visits by the Project Director;
- The critical proofreading by the Project Director or his/her deputy, of all reports before they are submitted to the Client.