Procuring Professional Services: Architects, Engineers and Consultants

Professional services — architectural, engineering, project management, legal, financial and other consultancy services — are subject to the Services category rules under EU Directive 2014/24/EU. They are procured at above-threshold values through eTenders using open or restricted procedure. The OGP has developed specific guidance for professional services procurement, including template RFTs and evaluation frameworks, reflecting the particular characteristics of professional service markets — notably the importance of team quality, relevant experience and methodology relative to fee level.

The CWMF conditions of engagement (COE) are the standard professional services contract for design and project management services on public capital works. They define the services to be provided, the fee structure, intellectual property rights, professional indemnity insurance requirements and dispute resolution. Contracting authorities must use the standard COE forms unless they have a specific and documented reason for departing from them.

A defining feature of professional services procurement in Ireland is the quality-fee split in award criteria. Unlike goods contracts where price typically dominates, professional services RFTs allocate significant weight to quality criteria — the technical competence, relevant experience, proposed methodology and team CV of the tenderer. The OGP guidance suggests a minimum quality weighting of 50% for professional services and, for complex or high-risk design commissions, quality may carry as much as 80% of the award weight.

The quality criteria must be linked to the subject matter of the contract and must be assessable from the tenderers' submissions. Common quality sub-criteria include: relevant project experience (demonstrating previous similar projects); team CVs (demonstrating the qualifications and track record of proposed team members); methodology and work plan (demonstrating the approach to the specific services required); and resource allocation (demonstrating that the team has adequate capacity for the commission). Fee proposals should be weighted to reflect that the cost of professional services during design is typically less than 10% of the construction cost — over-emphasising fee risks selecting a service that is cheapest in the short term but delivers a poorer design at higher construction cost.

Restricted procedure for professional services typically includes a pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ) stage to establish a shortlist, followed by RFT issued to shortlisted candidates. For larger or more complex commissions, an interview stage between RFT evaluation and contract award allows the authority to meet proposed teams in person, verify submissions and assess whether the proposed individuals are genuinely available to work on the project.

Interviews must be conducted consistently and documented carefully. Questions must be the same for all candidates, scoring must be applied using the pre-disclosed criteria, and the award decision must be based on the aggregate score from all stages (PQQ, RFT, interview) in the weightings disclosed at the outset. Any deviation from the pre-disclosed scoring methodology — even a small adjustment to accommodate an interview impression — is a procedural breach that could result in a successful legal challenge by an unsuccessful tenderer.

Fee competition for professional services is a requirement of EU procurement rules — the authority cannot simply negotiate or agree fees without a competitive process above the applicable threshold. However, the authority should ensure that fee competition is structured to produce realistic and sustainable fees rather than a race to the bottom that delivers underpowered teams and cost savings that are quickly eroded by design failures or change management deficiencies during construction.

Best practice in Irish professional services procurement is to require all tenderers to price against a defined scope of services in a fee schedule, enabling direct comparability. Fixed-price or lump-sum fee arrangements are preferred for defined scope services; time-charge arrangements with hourly rate schedules should be limited to genuinely undefined scope services where pre-pricing is not practicable. GovIQ's procurement router includes a professional services template that generates a compliant RFT and evaluation matrix pre-populated with OGP-recommended quality criteria weightings for the relevant service category.