One of my best design clients recently asked me to prepare a response to a public agency's Request for Proposals. The project involved extending sewer service to a small area not currently served, where the lots were too small to allow the permitting of septic tank systems. The project seemed simple enough. And the RFP was simple and straightforward.
On the second page of the RFP, the first bullet item in the Scope of Work was the preparation of the bid packet. I assumed that this meant design and preparation of plans, specifications and cost estimates (PS&E) for the project.
However, on the next page, the three items in the Project Summary were "Summarize the problem to be addressed," "Identify the location of each activity," and "Identify the actions to resolve the problems." Under this last item, it said "Construction shall consist of the installation of..." and it proceeded to enumerate the number of linear feet of pipe and the pipeline diameter, the number of manholes, etc.
There was no mention of any design activities in Item 3. This made me wonder if the design phase was already complete and the project just involved the installation and testing of pipe. I emailed the agency's purchasing agent yesterday and have not received a response so far, even though the submittal is due in one week.
In a related "pet peeve," I have close to 60 public sector agency websites that I check once or twice each week. These include cities, counties, transit and miscellaneous agencies, as well as fedbizopps (fbo.gov). At a number of these sites, when you click the RFP or RFQ link, you get to see requests for proposals to study, to design, AND to construct. And the construction project links can also be accessed through the "Bids" link. You have to click to open the individual document to discover whether the project is a design or construction assignment.
Looking for potential project leads takes more time than it would had the pursuit titles included more than just the name of the facility. For example, I'd like to see:
- RFP for Traffic Studies for Main Street
- RFQ/RFP for Design of Improvements to Main Street
or
- IFB for Construction of Main Street Improvements
This would make things much easier for those of us looking for potential projects, whether we are in-house marketing or business development staff or outside consultants who look for leads to bring their A/E/C clients.
Unfortunately, many who see their job responsibilities as other than communication don't seem to understand the importance of choosing the correct word. And not using any words at all can be as inefficient—for both the owner/agency and the A/E/C firm—as using the wrong words (calling something an RFP when it is actually an invitation to bid on a construction project.
Somehow, I suspect that, as long as purchasing/procurement staff borrow existing RFQs and RFPs rather than writing them from scratch, we will always have solicitations that don't quite say what they need to, or that will require the development and submittal of information that actually has no relevance to the project or product at hand.