July 6, 2009

Consulting Engineering

Engineers advocate Qualifications Based Selection for public construction projects

RICHARD GILBERT

staff writer

The association that represents consulting engineers in Canada is intensifying its efforts to advocate for the use of Qualifications Based Selection (QBS).

Part of the approach is to explain the benefits to owners.

“In terms of advocating for the use of QBS, I am seeing momentum, but it is an ongoing battle,” said Jeff Morrison, president of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies – Canada (ACEC) at a recent summit in Whistler, B.C.

“The message from Whistler is to keep on going. The time is now to ramp things up and keep up the effort, because we are making progress.”

QBS is a procurement method used for the selection of architectural and engineering services on public construction projects.

It is where consulting firms submit qualifications to an owner, who evaluates and selects the most qualified firm, and then negotiates the project scope of work, schedule, budget and consultant fee.

“When we submit a normal proposal, we do everything we can to keep costs down,” said Mike Currie, president of Kerr Wood Leidal Associates Ltd.

“If we are just trying to keep costs down, we can’t be creative and give the best solution.”

Under QBS, the price or cost of the work is not considered when making the initial selection of the best or most appropriate provider of the services.

“In the last few years we did some work to educate clients and make the QBS procurement process more user friendly,” said Chris Newcomb, past chair of the ACEC and president of McElhanney Consulting Services.

“But in the last few months, we have lost a certain amount of ground and need to work to minimize the losses.”

Growth in the use of QBS this year has been encouraging for the association.

A federal government report recommended that Public Works and Government Services Canada consider enacting legislation requiring the use of QBS for professional consultants.

However, the federal government isn’t moving as quickly as ACEC would like on the issue .

“At Defence Construction Canada (DCC), we are planning to keep the cost element in the evaluation process,” said Melinda Nycholat, director of contract services with DCC.

“The reason for this is it addresses the issue of lost value for the crown and tax payers.”

Nycholat said by giving cost a weight of 10 to 15 per cent in the evaluation process, the DCC also selects a firm qualified to do the work.

“The challenge right now is to get people on the procurement side to not consider money at all, but with the recession they are looking at how they can get prices down,” said Walter Orr, civil engineering principal with Yellowknife-based FSC Architects and Engineers.

“Even if price comes down, it should have nothing to do with the process because negotiation is based on the scope of the work. What QBS does is take fees off the table in terms of evaluation.”

The association was encouraged when Quebec adopted QBS as a policy for its public sector work.

However, there are still some barriers.

Orr said he has not written a QBS proposal in 20 years in the business and many people involved in procurement have not used the process.

“What we will have to do, as it gets more entrenched, is we will have to teach our members how to write and win a QBS-based proposal,” he said.

The ACEC has entered a partnership with the Canadian Standards Association to develop a course to teach procurement officers and engineers to implement the procurement system.

The course is expected to be finished by late 2009 or early 2010.

Print | Email | Comment