Do I need to follow Brooks Act procedures when procuring material testing services, such as on-site testing of soil back-fill materials?
A. You will note that there are two statutes that define when Brooks Act procedures must be used: 49 USC Section 5325(b) and 40 U.S.C. Section 1102. The latter defines services that include soils engineering in paragraph (C). Based on the description of services in this statute, we would conclude that soils testing is an A&E service subject to the Brooks Act. The FTA Best Practices Procurement Manual (BPPM) defines the requirements for architect-engineer services in section 6.5.
