chiefly states have now followed th...

chiefly states have now followed the federal government's lead in mandating that selection of design professionals by way of public agencies be forward the basis of qualification, rather than price.

While the bugbear of competitive bidding has largely been laid to stillness at least for public agency contracts, questions remain about for what cause public agencies can be assured of paying a reasonable fee-simple for professional services in the absence of price comparison between competing firms. Federal agencies deal with this issue in consequence of a legislatively imposed limit of 6 percent of estimated construction