CHAPTER 5: The Selection of the Civil Engineer

OBJECTIVES
 To know the basis for the selection
 To distinguish the client’s selection committee
 To learn about qualifications-based selection (QBS)
 To select a procedure for the level of effort for contracts

I. INTRODUCTION
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 abilities. Selection
of the most qualified Civil Engineer for a specific project will result in a well-planned and
designed, economical, and successful project.

II. Basis for Selection

The client should establish administrative policies and criteria for selecting qualified Civil
Engineers for 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 may be individually identified and defined. By clearly
defining the services the Civil Engineer is to furnish, the client can accurately judge whether the
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 the Civil Engineer and his staff as determined
by inquiries to previous clients and other references.
2. Responsible Civil Engineers and their employees and must be registered professional
Civil Engineers.
3. Civil Engineers should have demonstrated qualifications and expertise, performing the
services required for the project.
4. Civil engineers 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.
 The selection procedures described in this manual apply to projects of the private sector. For
government projects, E.O. 164 and PD 1594 as amended apply to the procurement of consulting
services and selection of contractors for construction, respectively.

III. 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 a selection of Civil Engineers for
specific assignments. The person appointed should be familiar with the project requirements and
should be kept free of internal or external 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 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 civil engineering practices. The committee is responsible for making
recommendations after conducting appropriate investigations, interviews, and inquiries. The final
selection is then based on the selection committee’s recommendations.

IV. QUALIFICATIONS-BASED SELECTION (QBS) procedure

The selection procedure is considerably 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 a
satisfactory experience with one more Civil Engineers. It may not be necessary to follow all the
steps outlined.
1. By invitation or by public notice, state the general nature of the project, and the services
required, and request statements of qualifications and experience from the 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). 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
Engineers before 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 projects. 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
at a realistic minimum given 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 project scope and outline of services required, and 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 results of the project and the
engineering services required. These interviews may be held at the Civil Engineer’s office. The
client may consider 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 the 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 considering 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
deliverables and schedule and negotiate fair compensation for the services.
9. The compensation proposed by the Civil Engineer should be evaluated based on the
client's experience and budget estimate, taking account of the range of charges reported in
Section 4 herein; considering the project’s special 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 a satisfactory agreement is not reached with the first Civil Engineer, the negotiations
should be terminated, and the Civil Engineer or firm be notified in writing to that effect. Similar
negotiations should then be held with the second Civil engineer or firm and, if necessary, with
the third Civil engineer 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.
11. When an agreement has been reached on scope, schedule, and compensation, the client
and selected Civil Engineer should formalize their agreement in a written contract.

V. SELECTION PROCEDURE FOR ‘LEVEL OF EFFORT’ CONTRACTS

A “level of effort” type of contract for engineering services is a contract procedure used to
supplement a client's staff, either by providing an extension to existing disciplines and
capabilities already on board or by adding special disciplines not available on the client’s staff.
As applied to “level of effort” contracts, the QSB procedures set the 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 request 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 specialist 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.

5.1 Bidding
Professional engineering and architectural societies, recognize QBS as the preferred
method for the procurement of professional services. The NEDA Guidelines require the
procurement of professional engineering and architectural services only by a process like that
described in the “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 meriting careful negotiations and performance accountability, are a small portion
of overall project cost 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 ad preliminary phases, without lengthy
discussions and negotiations with the selected firm. Lacking specifics, the bidding firms must, 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 Engineer are not likely to be
performed. The consulting Civil Engineer selected by the 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.
For these reasons, bidding for professional services is not recommended.
5.2 Two-Envelope System
The two-envelope system involves the 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 the basis for the 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 the “Qualifications-Based
selection procedure”, provided that the client and the best-qualified consulting Civil Engineer
have an extensive discussion to reach a full agreement on the scope of services. This allows the
client to utilize the knowledge and experience of consulting Civil Engineering establishing the
scope of services. Upon the 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 confirm 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 to be firms not selected,
which increases the overall business costs of consulting Civil Engineering and ultimately of the
clients.