THE SELECTION OF

CIVIL ENGINEERS

Reporters:
Patma Andas
Juluis Arceño
Professor:
Engr. Joel Villaruz
 THE SELECTION OF CIVIL ENGNEERS

The selection and engagement of a Civil Engineer is one of the most important decisions to
be made during the development of an Engineering project. No two Civil Engineers have
the same training experience, capabilities, personnel, workloads, and particular activities.
Selection of the most qualified Civil Engineer for a specific project will result in a well-
planned and designed, economical, and successful project.

BASIS FOR SELECTION

The client should establish administrative policy and criteria for the selection of qualified
Civil Engineers for particular projects. The client’s first step is to define the proposed scope
of the project. In some cases, this may be a general statement of the performance
requirements of the project. At other times, the tasks to be performed maybe individually
identified and defined. By clearly defining the services which the Civil Engineer is to furnish,
the client can accurately judge whether or not the Civil Engineer is best equipped to provide
them.

Some of the factors that should be considered in the selection process are:

1. The professional and ethical reputation of Civil Engineer and his staff as determined
by inquiries to previous clients and other references.
2. Responsible Civil Engineers and its employee and must be registered Professional
Civil Engineers.
3. Civil Engineers should have demonstrated qualifications and expertise, performing
the service required.
4. Civil Engineer should be able to assign qualified engineering staff who will be in
responsible charge of the project and will be able to provide and complete the
required services within the time allotted.
5. The Civil Engineer should have the necessary financial and business resources to
accomplish the assignment and provide continuing service.

CLIENT’S SELECTION COMMITTEE

Within the client’s organization there should be an established administrative policy for
designating the persons authorized to select or recommend selection of Civil Engineers for
specific assignments. The persons appointed should be familiar with the project
requirements and should be kept free of internal or eternal pressure during the selection
process.

One satisfactory procedure is to utilize a selection committee of three or more individuals, at

least one of whom is a professional engineer of the appropriate discipline. For public
projects, the client must choose individuals who demonstrate objectivity in order to avoid the
appearance of a conflict of interest in the selection of the Civil Engineer. At least one of the
individuals should be thoroughly familiar with the Civil Engineering practices. The committee
is responsible for making recommendations after conducting appropriate investigations,
interviews, and inquiries. The final selection is then based upon the selection committee’s
recommendation.

QUALIFICATIONS-BASED SELECTIONS (QBS) PROCEDURE

The selection procedure is considerately enhanced when the client is fully familiar with the
purpose and nature of the proposed project, can describe the project in detail, and can
prepare a project scope and outline of services expected of the Civil Engineer. In some
cases the client may not have professional staff available to define the project scope and
describe the required services. The client should still be familiar enough with the project
requirements to understand what is expected of the Civil Engineer. The Selection
procedure, however, can be modified to suit the circumstances.

The client’s usual steps in the selection procedure are presented below. If the client has had
satisfactory experience with one or more Civil Engineers, it may not be necessary to follow
all of the steps outlined.

1. By invitation or by public notice, state the general nature of the project, the services
required, and request statements of qualifications and experience from Civil
Engineers who appear to be capable of meeting the project requirements. The client
may issue a “Request for Qualifications” (RFQ) or “Request for Proposals” (RFP).
The RFQs are normally used to ascertain the general qualifications in a selected
area of expertise while RFPs are used to seek Civil Engineers for creating “short
lists” for selecting a Civil Engineer for a specific project.
2. Prepare a budget for the staff time and costs that can be expected from potential
Civil Engineer prior to receipt of the RFQs or RFPs.
3. Evaluate the statements of qualifications received. Select at least three Civil
Engineers or firms that may appear to be best qualified for the specific project. It
should be noted that often more than three Civil Engineers or firms may appear to be
equally qualified – in which case more Civil Engineers or firms may be considered.
However, in fairness to those not selected it is usually best to make a conscientious
effort to keep the number selected for further consideration for realistic minimum in
view of the cost and time required to prepare competent proposals.
4. Write a letter to each Civil Engineer or selected for further consideration describing
the proposed project in detail, including a project scope and outline of services
required, asking for a proposal describing in detail the Civil Engineer’s plan for
managing and performing the required services, the personnel to be assigned, the
proposed schedule, experience with similar projects, office location in which services
are to be performed, financial standing, present workload, and references. Each Civil
Engineer or firm should have an opportunity to visit the site, review all pertinent data
 and obtain clarification of any items as required. For major or complex projects a
pre-proposal conference may be desirable to explain details of the proposed scope
of services and to answer questions.
5. On receipt of proposals, invite the Civil Engineers or firms to meet individually with
the selection committee for interviews and discussions of the desired end results of
the project and the engineering services required. These interviews may be held at
the Civil Engineer’s office. The client may consider the supplementing the selection
committee with personnel who have specialized expertise to advise the committee,
when appropriate. During each interview the selection committee should review the
qualifications and experience of each Civil Engineer or firm, the capability to provide
the services within the time allotted, and the key personnel to be assigned to the
project.
6. Check with recent clients of each Civil Engineer or firm to determine the quality of
their performance. This check need not be limited to references listed by the Civil
Engineer.
7. List the Civil Engineer or firms in the order of preference, taking into account their
approach and understanding of the project, reputation, experience, financial
standing, size, personnel available, quality of references, workload, location, and
other factors pertinent to the project being considered.
8. Invite the Civil Engineer considered to be best qualified to develop a detailed scope.
List of deliverables and schedule, and to negotiate fair compensation for the
services.
9. The compensation proposed by the Civil Engineer should be evaluated to on the
basis of the clients experience and budget estimate, taking account of the range of
charges reported in Section 4 herein; giving consideration to the project’s special
characteristics and the scope of services agreed upon. Fair and reasonable
compensation to the Civil Engineer is vital to the success of the project since it will
enable the consultant’s expertise to be fully utilized.
10. If satisfactory agreement is not reached with the first Civil Engineer, the negotiations
should be terminated and the Civil Engineer or firm to be notified in writing to that
effect. Similar negotiations should then be held with the second Civil Engineers or
firm and, if necessary, with the third Civil Engineers or firm. If no accord is reached,
the client should seek outside assistance before continuing with the selection
process. Such a procedure will usually result in the development of a satisfactory
contract. All such negotiations should be on a strictly confidential basis, and in no
case should the compensation discussed with one Civil Engineer be disclosed to
another.

SELECTION PROCEDURE FOR ‘’ LEVEL OF EFFORT’’ CONTRACT

A ‘’level of effort’’ type of contract for engineering services is a contract procedure used to
supplement a client staff, either by providing an extension to existing disciplines and
capabilities of already on board or by adding special disciplines not available on the client’s
staff.

As applied to ‘’ level of effort’’ contracts, the QBS procedure sets forth to general nature of
services to be rendered, the types of specialists required and the estimated number of
hours required during the contract period for each type and grade of specialist, and then
requests proposals from qualified firms. Proposals usually state the experience of the firm
as it pertains to the given scope of services, and the backgrounds of the specialists
available to work on the project. After narrowing the proposals to those which best meet
experience qualifications, the client negotiates an agreement as described in paragraphs 9-
11 above.

BIDDING

Professional engineering and architectural societies, recognize QBS as the preferred

method for procurement of professional services. In fact the NEDA Guidelines require the
procurement of professional engineering and architectural services only by a process
similar to that described in ‘’ Qualifications-Based Selection Procedure’’, above.

Selection of Civil Engineers and related service professionals, including consultants and
sub consultants on construction projects, should result from competition based on the
qualifications and resources best suited to complete a project successfully in terms of
performance quality and cost effectiveness. Qualifications and resources, including training,
professional licensing experience, skills capabilities, special expertise personnel, and
workloads, are paramount considerations in engaging engineering services. Costs of these
services, while important and meeting careful negotiations and performance accountability,
are a small portion of overall project costs and should be subordinate to professional
qualifications and experience.

There are many reasons why bidding for consulting Civil Engineering services often
produces unsatisfactory results for the client. Principal among these are:

1. Bidding does not recognize professional judgment, which is the key difference
between professional services and the furnishing of products. Judgment is an
essential ingredient in quality engineering services.
2. It is virtually impossible to completely detail in advance the scope of services
required for an engineering project especially for the study and preliminary phases,
without lengthy discussions and negotiations with the selected firm. Lacking
specifics, the bidding firms must, in order to be competitive, submit a price for the
least effort envisioned. The resulting service performed is likely to be tailored to fit
the minimal requirements of the bid documents and will not necessarily suit the
client’s needs or expectations.
3. In depth studies and analyses by the consulting Civil Engineers are not likely to be
performed. The consulting Civil Engineer selected by lowest bid will often provide
only the minimum services necessary to satisfy the client’s scope of services.
4. The consulting Civil Engineer’s ability to be flexible and creative in meeting the
client’s requirements is severely limited.
5. The Engineering designs are likely to be minimal in completeness with the details left
to the contractor. This produces a lower first cost design but tends to add to the cost
of the completed project. The lack of design-details also can and frequently does,
lead to a greater number of change orders during construction and to contractor
claims at a later date.

TWO-ENVELOPE SYSTEM

The two-envelope system involves submission of a technical proposal in one envelope

and a price proposal in a second envelope. The client then evaluates the technical
proposals and selects the best qualified Civil Engineer based on that consulting Civil
Engineer’s technical proposal. At this point in the selection procedure, the client opens
the price proposal submitted in the second envelope and uses this as a basis for
negotiation of contractual scope and fees. The second envelopes submitted by the
unsuccessful proposers are returned unopened.

If the client follows this procedure, the net effect is as outlined in ‘’Qualifications-Based
Selection procedure’’, provided that the client and the best qualified consulting Civil
Engineer have extensive discussions to reach full agreement on the scope of services.
This allows the client to utilize the knowledge and experience of the consulting Civil
Engineer in establishing the scope of services. Upon agreement of scope, the price of
services should be negotiated to reflect changes from the original scope used for
obtaining proposals.

If both envelopes of all proposers are opened at the same time, a bidding process, as
discussed in the section on ‘’Bidding’’, is initiated with attendant disadvantages.
Procedures should be established to provide confirmation that the second envelope is
opened for only the successful proposal.

The two-envelope system is not recommended. If used as intended, it is similar to the

recommended QBS procedure except that the added cost to prepare a comprehensive
scope and price discourages some consulting Civil Engineers from participating. The
costs to prepare a proper price proposal are considerable to the firms not selected,
which increases the overall business costs of consulting Civil Engineering and ultimately
of the clients.