December 21, 2001—The AIA national staff recently met with Angela Styles, Administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement Policy, at a meeting of the Council on Federal Procurement of Architectural and Engineering Services (COFPAES). COFPAES is a coalition of architectural and engineering (A/E) professional societies from both the public and private sectors that was established to educate Congress and the public on the design process as well as to advocate the importance of qualifications-based selection (QBS). QBS requires that A/E firms be selected on the basis of professional qualifications, competence, and prior performance.
Using QBS, the federal government hires the most qualified A/E firm while obtaining a price that is “fair and reasonable” to the taxpayers. In addition to promoting the benefits of the QBS process, COFPAES also encouraged Styles to remove A/E services from the General Services Administrations (GSA) supply schedule.
COFPAES argues that listing A/E services on a price-based service schedule violates the QBS statute which states that the acquisition of A/E services should be conducted in a different manner than those products and services procured via the GSA schedule. COFPAES strongly recommended that A/E services be removed from the GSA supply schedule.
Contract bundling was also discussed at the meeting. COFPAES raised the concern that GSA often includes A/E services when awarding non-A/E contracts. For example, GSA has contracted out information technology work that required the renovation of facilities and therefore included the necessary A/E services as part of the contract. Under this practice, a notice is not announced publicly calling for A/E services.
Based on a report from AIA’s ANGLE
