Engineers and architects are thrilled with the announcement that the federal government, through Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC), is taking steps towards introducing qualifications-based selection (QBS) for the procurement of architectural and engineering services on federal projects.
On Feb. 2 PSPC issued a request for information (RFI) to seek comments on the possible introduction of QBS. The closing date is March 13.
John Gamble, president and CEO of the Association of Consulting Engineering Companies — Canada (ACEC), and Toon Dreessen, an advocate on the issue for the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (RAIC) and also as past president of the Ontario Association of Architects, have both lobbied the federal government and other procurement agencies for years to introduce QBS as a substitute for primarily price-based contracting.
Both the ACEC and RAIC have responded to the RFI and association executives have been urging their members to do the same.
“I believe QBS is the driver for how we are going to deliver the innovation that we need in the Canadian design and construction sectors,” said Dreessen. “The procurement that we have today is broken, and everyone knows it and everyone admits it.
“I am really thrilled to see Public Works take a lead on this and moving toward this model because it will deliver better value. There is a proven track record of doing so and it is better for the consulting industry.”
Gamble commented, “We are not over the goal line yet but we are seeing a very credible, very serious gesture by PSPC that it will employ QBS.
“We believe there is a very strong business case. Price-based procurement tends to encourage proponents to minimally interpret the scope. It effectively penalizes proponents for proposing new ideas and innovating. It penalizes them for anticipating problems with the project, because it requires you to price yourself out of competition.”
QBS is about the right team for that project for the right outcome
John Gamble
Association of Consulting Engineering Companies — Canada
Gamble said some U.S. jurisdictions have been using QBS for 40 years. In Canada, the cities of Calgary and Coquitlam, B.C. and Alberta Transportation are at different stages in considering or implementing its use.
The advocates said U.S. studies show QBS delivers much better value than traditional procurement methods.
“They studied over 200 projects and they found that when you’ve got the right team doing the design work, you can realize a significant reduction in construction cost overruns,” said Gamble.
“At the end of the day, this is an investment of the taxpayer’s money and we have a mutual obligation to do better on behalf of the taxpayers.”
The ACEC’s newsletter to its members calling for participating in the RFI explained QBS starts with consultants submitting qualifications to a project owner, who evaluates them and selects the best-qualified firm or team. Gamble said at this point innovation considerations can be introduced that can include the whole supply chain and aim for increased quality, reduced operating costs throughout the project life cycle, risk transfer assessment and even ways to meet government policy targets such as encouraging diversity and more SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) participation.
The owner and consultant then jointly refine the project scope and the consultant’s fee is negotiated based on the agreed-upon scope of work.
The traditional request for qualifications (RFQ) and request for proposals fail to achieve the same goals, said Gamble.
“QBS is about the right team for that project for the right outcome,” said Gamble. “An RFQ simply lets you through the gate, the next step is often, ‘now that you are qualified, what is the best price?’
“You have gone to the trouble to identify qualified people, now you are saying, ‘we would like you to minimally interpret the scope and give the bare minimum required to deliver the project.’ That is not a recipe for innovation, it is not a recipe for going above and beyond. It is a recipe for the status quo.”
Dreessen said, “If I spent a little more design time on something that resulted in better value, lower operating costs, easier maintainability, then the end user would have a better product.”
He explained that procurement departments end up asking fine-grained questions that aim to nail down contingencies and narrowly limit the scope of work, because they want something that is quantifiable, “but design is not a quantifiable objective.”
Besides Dreessen, Gamble noted the contributions of Cal Harrison of QBS Canada and Mark Steiner of the American Council of Engineering Companies in advocating for QBS with the federal government. Issues were focused at a workshop hosted by PSPC assistant deputy minister Arianne Reza last September. Gamble said the PSPC has committed to conducting a QBS pilot for engineering and architecture services.
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