This legislation seeks to change the way by which local governments procure engineerings services. Today, cities across Georgia utilize mostly two methods, low-bid, or qualified based selection (QBS). 

This bill would require all local governments in the state to utilize QBS as their sole procurement process. QBS at present, is required for state procurement and is utilized by many larger local governments. QBS is a simple and competitive procurement framework that selects architectural and engineering firms for projects based on expertise and experience rather than cost alone.  QBS evaluates a firm’s experience, expertise, training, availability, and references.

Under this bill, municipal governments may enter into multiparty on-demand services contracts for a specifically delineated range of professional services with not more than five professional services providers so long as such providers are competitively selected based on qualifications contained within the QBS structure. 

Additionally, municipal governments that have a satisfactory existing working relationship with a professional services provider, may expand the scope of those services with such provider so long as such expanded services are within the technical competency of the existing provider.