Standing Up for QBS

Now that the legislative session has ended, we have seen our advocacy efforts turn back to working with local government entities and political subdivisions to enforce the use of both the state and federal qualifications based selection laws. 

Since we do not see every RFQ advertised soliciting engineering services, we rely on our members to share with us RFQs they know or believe violate the QBS laws. We then intervein on the behalf of our members and the business of engineering by submitting a notification email or letter to the public entity formally notifying them of the violation.

When the RFQ clearly states that a proposed price to perform the identified scope of work will be considered in the selection of the firm, the public entity will often issue an addendum striking from the RFQ any requests for price related information. However, some QBS violations are not so cut and dry. I am starting to see more and more RFQs that do not have price listed in the scoring criteria, but the RFQ still requires responding firms to submit with their proposals time and fee schedules for the service necessary to complete the work. Obviously, a proposed/estimated price can easily be calculated by using this information which is clearly a work around QBS. Justification for requesting this information varies among public entities, with most saying the price related information with not be used in the selection of the firm. That said, I believe that simply requesting respondents to submit any type of price related information prior to selection contradicts the intent of QBS. I am also seeing where public entities are requiring their QBS selected primes or project managers to get bids from subs for engineering and/or surveying work.. Again, I think this is another clear violation of QBS. It is both ACEC National and ACECL's opinion that QBS law should be required when public dollars, state or federal, are being used to fund a project. Who is asking for price related information, private or public entities, is irrelevant when public funds are being used.

As mentioned above, ACECL is made aware of QBS violations when members share them with us. Please never hesitate to send me any RFQ you know or think may violate the important procurement laws. All information I receive is confidential and the name of the firm who sent me the RFQ is never shared. 

Unfortunately, attacks on QBS don't exist at just the state and local levels. ACEC National is currently working to defeat the proposed rule from FHWA that would exempt local governments from complying with federal highway regulations, including QBS requirements and the FAR cost principles, when contracting for engineering services on projects funded with IIJA discretionary grants. ACEC recently convened other stakeholder groups – ASCE, ARTBA, AGC, and NSPE – in a meeting with senior FHWA officials to reiterate our concerns. FHWA confirmed that the proposed rule was part of an agency-wide effort beginning in 2023 to look at all their regulations and the authorizing statutes and determine what applies to states and locals and what does not. They collected feedback from the state division administrators and the various associate administrators across the full spectrum of their programs and regulations. Their proposal was internally driven – no outside groups are pushing this – and they have not really engaged the local recipient community at all.

FHWA is currently reviewing all submitted comments and will evaluate and discuss them, then decide on how to proceed. That will involve the program staff and agency attorneys. They did not indicate any timeline or any likely direction or outcome for the rulemaking process. Fortunately for Louisiana, we have our own state QBS law so if state or local dollars are being used with federal dollars to fund the project, QBS procurement will still be required regardless of the FHWA's final determination.

Congratulations 2024-2025 Board of Governors

Chad M. Poche, P.E., with Gulf South Engineering & Testing, Inc. has been elected as chairman of

the American Council of Engineering Companies of Louisiana for 2024-2025.

Other officers elected include:

Chairman-elect: Sherri LeBas, P.E., GEC, Inc.

Vice-Chairman: Brett P. Bayard, P.E., PLS, Mader Engineering, Inc.  

Secretary-Treasurer: Don R. Arrington, P.E., S.E. Huey Company

National Director: Nathan J. Junius, P.E., PLS, Linfield Hunter & Junius, Inc.

Members at Large for 2024-2025 include:

Colby J. Gruidry, P.E., Huval & Associates, Inc.

Byron Racca, P.E., Meyer & Associates, Inc.

Michael Pugh, P.E., Royal Engineers & Consultants, Ltd.

Brin Ferlito, P.E., PTOE, Vectura Consulting Services, LLC

Robert Delaune, P.E., Digital Engineering & Imaging, Inc.

James Ellingburg, P.E., Lazenby & Associates

Nick Ferlito, P.E., Neel-Schaffer

Chapter Presidents include:

Kimberly McDaniel, P.E., PTOE, Intelligent Transportation Systems (Baton Rouge)

Brian E. Moldaner, P.E., MBA, T. Baker Smith (New Orleans)

David B. Stelly, P.E., Associated Design Group (ADG) (Lafayette)

Jordan M. Pearson, P.E., Forte and Tablada (Shreveport)

TBD (Lake Charles)

The 2024-2025 Board of Governors term will commence on July 1, 2024.