Terminal-Concession Handback Board Adviser

The mandate

The committee repeatedly asks whether contractual asset tests are enough to receive a live terminal whose cranes, pavement, systems, spares, records, workforce knowledge and customer obligations must operate the next morning. The concessionaire interprets handback by physical compliance, while the authority needs maintainable service and evidence. Deferred work and disputed renewals are accumulating as the expiry date approaches. Directors want independent operating challenge without negotiating the contract.

The service follows handback decision gates. For three days each month, the adviser will interrogate one evidence population, conduct the relevant concessionaire or management challenge and equip the chair with a reasoned decision and action trail. Six infrastructure-and-operations committee sessions and five terminal asset or transition reviews complete the agreed coverage. A proposed waiver or material interpretation of handback receives written challenge within two Kenyan business days; authorised management and counsel continue to own contract, acceptance and operating decisions.

Handback planning and the final readiness decision establish a twelve-month, non-rolling commission. Delay, dispute or arbitration cannot push its finishing date. If the authority seeks post-transfer advice, directors must frame that different question in another resolution and repeat conflict review before appointing anyone. Advisory capacity not used here cannot confer technical certification, support transaction negotiation or place this adviser in an expert-witness role.

The adviser holds no line authority and carries no executive responsibility for terminal operations, asset acceptance, engineering, labour transfer, data migration, concession interpretation, claim or procurement. Management proposes and executes transition, counsel interprets rights and directors decide reserved matters. The adviser may challenge operability and evidence but cannot accept an asset, waive an obligation or direct the concessionaire.

Work for the concessionaire, terminal operators, equipment makers, engineers, lenders, insurers, unions, shipping lines or counsel must be disclosed. A relevant relationship requires recusal from the complete asset or transition issue. Compensation cannot depend on claim, waiver, acceptance, operator choice, capital or later implementation, and bidder introductions are prohibited.

Why the board wants this voice

Engineers can inspect assets and counsel can interpret clauses, but neither owns the first day of uninterrupted terminal service. Authority managers have not operated this facility for a generation. An independent former terminal executive can test whether formal handback produces an operable system without usurping acceptance or contract authority.

What you will own

• Press management to define day-one service outcomes across berth, crane, yard, gate, rail, safety, security and customer communication.
• Test physical asset evidence for maintenance history, remaining life, spares, documentation, competence and operating dependency.
• Challenge data and system handover that transfers files without access rights, lineage, support and usable operating history.
• Probe workforce knowledge, contractor continuity, permits, customer obligations and unresolved events at transfer time.
• Review five asset or transition cases and expose waivers, deferred work, ambiguous custody and decision deadlines.
• Shape board conditions for readiness, contingency, evidence preservation and referral to technical or legal owners.
• Give the chair an operability map, case findings, conflict register and questions for the final handback decision.

Candidate qualifications

• Led terminal concession transition, operator change or complex port-asset handback while service remained live.
• Has rejected apparently compliant assets because maintenance, spares, records or competence made them inoperable.
• Understands crane, yard, pavement, systems, safety, customer and workforce dependencies at executive level.
• Can challenge contract and engineering evidence without offering interpretation, certification or acceptance.
• Advised boards through disputed transition while preserving operator, authority, counsel and technical ownership.
• Maintained independence from concessionaires, operators, engineers, lenders, insurers, unions and equipment suppliers through inventory transfer and post-handover defect discovery.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend six Mombasa sessions and complete five terminal asset or transition reviews.
• Will disclose concessionaire, operator, engineer, lender, insurer, union and supplier relationships before access.
• Brings live terminal handback or operator change; infrastructure diligence alone is insufficient.
• Accepts no operation, acceptance, engineering, labour, contract, claim, procurement or board-voting authority.

1. 49 words maximum. Describe an asset that met handback wording but could not support day-one operation.
2. 49 words maximum. Which concessionaire, operator or engineer relationship could require your recusal?
3. 49 words maximum. What evidence proves transferred maintenance history is operationally usable?