SOAPBOX
Qualification-Based Selection of Professional Geospatial Services
by John M. Palatiello

Editor's Note: This opinion piece was written in response to the following situation. This past April, Fulton County, Pennsylvania received 17 bids in response to 40 Requests for Proposal mailed. The bids ranged from $13,650 to $82,240, to map the 11,000 parcels.

For more than 25 years, the surveying and mapping community (even before it became used to terms such as GIS, geospatial, and spatial data) has sought to set itself apart from others in government procurement. The profession has advocated that it is in the public interest for government agencies to procure professional mapping services on the basis of qualifications, rather than on price.

Congress enacted the "Brooks Act" in 1972. The law, found in the U.S. Code at 40 U.S.C. 541 et. seq., provides for Federal agency contracting for architecture and engineering services to be based on demonstrated competence and qualifications, subject to negotiation of a fee that is fair and reasonable to the government. The law was amended in 1988 to clarify its application by specifically including the words surveying and mapping.

It can be argued that just as a poorly designed dam can burst, subjecting the government to huge claims, so too can a poorly planned or executed map unleash a flood of problems, creating an impediment to the expeditious completion of a government project, causing substantial loss of time and money, and jeopardizing  public safety. Like a well-made dam, a high quality survey or map will stand the test of time and will ensure that the government can proceed with its mission, design, construction, or resource planning project based on complete and precise groundwork. In addition to the direct cost of the contract, the government must be concerned about such consequent indirect costs as physical destruction of property or clouded claims that could result from poor quality workmanship. Hundreds of decisions and assumptions are based on  mapping data in a GIS, regardless of whether the original purpose of the mapping and GIS was design or construction related, or not.

By requesting bids, a client assumes the responsibility for defining the scope of the services required and, thus, does not take any advantage of the knowledge and background of qualified geospatial professionals engaged in providing such services. All too few government administrators are knowledgeable in professional mapping and related geospatial disciplines, and their inadequacy in this regard is apparent in their requests for bids. The knowledgeable person is aware of the indeterminate nature of mapping. The reputable mapping professional, if he is to bid, must either attempt to anticipate the many possible problems, determine which problems he feels will occur, and bid accordingly, or, bid so high that he can include every possible condition (in which case he undoubtedly will not be the successful bidder).

That is why the Management Association for private Photogrammetric Surveyors (MAPPS) and other professional organizations advocate the qualifications-based selection (QBS). The process is not only codified for Federal procurement in the Brooks Act, but is recommended by the American Bar Association in its Model Procurement Code for State and Local Government. More than 30 states have enacted "mini-Brooks Acts" and no state has a specific statute providing for competitive bidding of these services.

The case was made more than a century ago by the British philosopher John Ruskin (1819-1900) who said, in The Law of Business:

"There is hardly anything in the world that someone cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price alone are that person's lawful prey. It is unwise to pay too much, but it is also unwise to pay too little. When you pay too much, you lose a little money, that is all. When you pay too little, you sometimes lose everything because the thing you bought is incapable of doing the thing you bought it to do. The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a lot... It can't be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to add something for the risk you run. And if you do that you will have enough to pay for something better."

About the Author
John M. Palatiello has been involved in legislation and public policy issues in the mapping community for more than 20 years. He is President of John M. Palatiello & Associates, Inc. (www.jmpa.us), a public affairs consulting firm, Executive Director of MAPPS (www.mapps.org), a trade association of private geospatial firms, and Administrator of COFPAES (www.cofpaes.org), a coalition of the nation's leading design-related professional societies and associations.

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