The Association of Consulting Engineers of Namibia encourages an orderly system for the selection and appointment of professional consultants.

SELECTION

Selection should preferably be based on a competitive evaluation of relevant criteria and is fully described in the document “How to Select and Appoint a Consulting Engineer”, a viewable version of which is available under the section for Documents on this site or at the following link.  A summary is given below.

The fundamental principal is that the Consulting Engineer must have the ability, experience and integrity to provide the scope and standard of service required by the Client. The best project results may only be realised when there is full and mutual trust between the client and his Consultant. The services that are provided are of a professional nature but are highly variable and depend on the requirements of each individual project.

• The four basic forms of selection are:
• Direct appointment, being a non-competitive method based on past experience and technical expertise
• Panel, being a non-competitive method by fairly rotating appointments through a panel of Consultants previously selected based on various technical criteria
• Quality Based selection (QBS), being a method where selection is based on individual technical submissions between potential Consultants using standard fee scales
• Quality-Cost Based Selection (QCBS), being a method where selection is based on individual technical submissions between potential Consultants using non-standard fees offered specifically for the project.

The methods are listed in the sequence of client input and the required brief development.

In addition, differentiation is made between projects based on the nature of the work entailed:

• Routine, being projects with generally straightforward tasks, outputs and size
• Complex, being projects requiring non-straightforward tasks and outputs or of abnormal size
• Specialist, being assignments of any size requiring specific experience or specialist knowledge.

The Association of Consulting Engineers of Namibia has the following recommendations in terms of the Client designation:

Client body Routine Complex Specialist
Government Ministry or Department Panel Panel, QBS Direct, QBS
Regional Council Panel Panel, QBS Direct, QBS
Municipality Panel, QBS Panel, QBS, QCBS Direct, QBS
Parastate Panel, QBS Panel, QBS, QCBS Direct, QBS
Private Panel, direct Direct, QCBS Direct, QBS

The following recommendations are made in terms of the nature of the project:

Estimated value of fees1  Classification Method
Less than N$ 500 000 Small: routine Panel
N$ 500 000 to N$ 1 000 000 Large: routine Panel/QBS/Direct
In excess of N$ 1 000 000 Size: complex Panel/QBS/QCBS
Any value Nature: complex Panel/QBS
Any value Specialist Direct/QBS

1 (excluding VAT and disbursements)

From the above it may be seen that the Association does not advocate fee competition as a selection criteria for Consulting Engineers except in the limited case of complex projects by virtue of their size and scope of involvement.

APPOINTMENT

Having selected a Consulting Engineer, the appointment must be formalised. Since the core of a successful project involving a Consulting Engineer is a sound Client/Consulting Engineer relationship based on a spirit of mutual trust and confidence, it is strongly recommended that the appointment be done in writing at the commencement of the project.

The Association of Consulting Engineers of Namibia has prepared a document entitled the Model Form. The latest version is dated September 2005, a viewable version of which is available under the section for Documents on this site or at the following link.

This Model Form replaces all previous documents (e.g. the Model Forms I, II and III of 1993) and is divided into sections as follows:

• Part 1: The Agreement, being the Form of Agreement and contains the names of the parties and the description of the project
• Part 2: The Standard Conditions of Agreement and the Recommended Fee Scales, being the description of the services to be provided, the obligations under the contract and the responsibilities of the parties with the recommended fee scales
• Part 3: The Special Conditions of Agreement, being any conditions specific to the particular project with particular reference to the level of service required during the construction phase
• Appendix A: Scope of Services Required, being a concise but clear statement of the services required by the project
• Appendix B: List of Recommended Rates and Expenses, being a list of disbursement and other rates applicable to the recommended fee scales.

The factors applicable to the Recommended Fee Scales and the List of Recommended Rates and Expenses are updated on a regular basis. The latest information is available under the section for Documents on this site or at the following link.

The Model Form is available free of charge to all member firms and the cost of N$ 200-00 for non-members.

The Association of Consulting Engineers reminds all parties that the above document is suitable for all private, Municipal and Parastate appointments. For direct Government (Ministerial and Departmental) appointments the appropriate fee scale should be as included in the Government Notice Number 24 of 1993 commonly known as the Government Gazette. The Government Gazette however does not include any conditions of appointment nor confirmation of the scope of the appointment. It is therefore recommended that, for these appointments, The Model Form be used in conjunction with the Government Gazette, the latter in regard only of the fees.

The use of the Government Gazette format fees is described in the document “Fee explanation for Government Gazette”, a viewable version of which is available under the section for Documents on this site or at the following link.  A summary is given below.