From FIDIC Publications: SELECTION BY ABILITY Introduction ı. l The iınportance of proper consultant selection Seıecting a consulting engineer is one of the most important decisions an owner or client makes. The success of any project often depends upon obtaining the most able, experienced and reputable engineering expertise available. The best project results are achieved when there is full and mutual trust between the client and his consulting engineer. This is because the consulting engineer must take decisions and act in the best interest of his client at ali times. The method of selection should therefore seek to develop mutual confidence between the two parties. There are two key points to consider when deciding what method of selection to employ: • Since precise professional performance specifications cannot be written, it is difficult, if not impossible, to apply the principles of competitive bidding equitably. That is to say, if the competition is based on price, different consulting engineers may anticipate providing very different levels of service. Although it is possible to write a performance specification for the physical aspects of the project itself, it is very difficult to write suitable specifications for how a consulting engineer should perform. This difficulty arises because such factors as the extent of investigations, the consideration of alternatives or the quality of design cannot be quantified. Each factor not only depends on the mechanics and procedures employed in executing professional work, but alsa upon the expertise, experience, judgement, innovation and imagination of the engineers and technicians working on the project. • Successful consulting engineering services depend on sufficient time spent by properly qualified people. Thus the method of selection should not force fees down to the point where consulting engineers cannot afford to assign properly qualified persons for sufficient periods of time. Inadequate fees lead to the reduction of the scope and quality of the service by spending less time on the project or assigning lower paid and usually less qualified personnel to the project. Thus lower consulting fees give no assurance of lower total project costs. Inadequate engineering often leads to higher construction costs, higher material costs and greater life cycle costs. All of which are likely to cost far more than the saving made on design fees. 1.2 Price as an element in selection Few clients are likely, in fact, to select their consulting engineer on price alone as it is obvious that satisfactory professional services depend on qualifications and competence. Some jurisdictions specifically forbid selection of consulting engineers on the basis of price. The dilemma facing the client is how to balance ability againts price, and how to quantify what he is trading off in technical compentence, managerial ability and trust against a perceived cheaper service. However, despite the use of well tried methods of selection that rely upon an assessment of the consulting engineer's ability, experience and integrity, there is often severe pressure for consulting engineers to compete with each other on the price of their services. In some countries there is organisation pressure on a client to award ali contracts to the lowest bidder. This is because competitive bidding is often the best method of procuring equipment and goods which can be specified precisely. However, this method has been adopted for the procurement of services without thought of the difficulties of specifying most consultancy services. Social, and to a limited extent, legislative pressures are put on clients to use competitive selection in an attempt to prevent or at least restrict abuse. Unhappily most methods of selection are open to manipulation of one sort or another. The best way to avoid this is to form a widely based selection committee, possibly with the assistance of independent consulting engineers, and to adopt the procedure outlined in these guidelines. A number of methods of selection have been devised that take account of price early in the selection procedure. Unfortunately, once price is used as a determining factor in the selection procedure, it dominates the objective assessment of the other factors, some of which could be far more significant to the final results than any saving in the cost of professional services. 1.3 Selection by ability The method that best meets ali factors is selection by ability. That is, the client chooses his consulting engineer on the basis of technical competence, managerial ability, availability of resources, professional independence, fairness of fee structure, professional integrity and quality assurance systems. The recommended procedure for selection of consulting engineering firms is to: define the services as precisely as possible - identify potential firms • select the most appropriate firm - discuss the scope of the project with the selected firm and negotiate the terms of agreement and the price. Both client and consulting engineer should protect their interests by using FIDIC's Client/Consulta,nt Model Services Agreement - "The White Book" - when drawing up the contract for consulting engineering services. (To be continued) 7
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