May/June 2020

PE Report
Idaho PEs Help Turn Back Threat to QBS

Legislation that challenged qualifications-based selection in Idaho was put on hold due to a successful, coordinated effort by a statewide coalition, including the Idaho Society of Professional Engineers.

A suite of proposed bills (H 445–447), sought to dramatically change the way public works contracts are awarded in the state. One (H 446), proposed that “competitive cost shall count for no less than fifty percent (50%) of the scoring criteria”; it applied to professional engineering, architectural, landscape architecture, construction management, and professional land surveying services over $50,000.

NSPE supports a qualifications-based selection procedure for all engineering services procurement. According to NSPE’s position statement, “with QBS, the interests of all professional services users are best served by a selection procedure for all engineering services on the basis of qualifications, including technical competence and staff consistent with the requirement of the project.”

The Idaho QBS Council, along with a lobbyist for the state chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies, immediately took action when the bills were introduced. ISPE members also shared their concerns with the representative who sponsored the bill. The council convinced the chair of the House Commerce and Human Resources Committee to hold the legislation, causing it to fail for this legislative session.

The council is made up of representatives in government and consulting, engineering, and land surveyors in government.

ISPE and other organizations represented by the QBS Council don’t want this issue type of legislation to reemerge in a future legislative sessions and plan to examine ways to improve the procurement process.

“The Council will address that,” says ISPE President Joe Canning, P.E., who serves on the council. “We’re going to have to do something this summer to look at developing a better way of reporting results of awarding and scoring.”

It is the policy of NSPE that all engineering services should be performed by qualified engineers on the basis of design ability, experience, integrity, and judgment. Engineering is a learned profession, requiring of its members sound technical experience, personal ability, education, honesty, and integrity.