It sometimes crossed my mind...

When the owner or architect select a consultant here in the Philippines, particularly MEP consultant, to design a condominium or high rise office building, the owner or architect oftentimes go for the MEP consultant who submits the lowest fee proposal.

What the owner or architect deosn't know, is that the money they saved on consultant's fees, however was overwhelmingly vanished due to overdesigned system.

Another drawback for choosing a consultant with low professional fee, is sometimes, the consultant may specify a very expensive system because of its tie up with the supplier. In return the participation to bidding will be limited only to suppliers who can supply the specified a high-end product where features may sometimes not needed by the owner's maintenance people at all.

I think, evaluating a consultant's fee prior to award of the project, may need to be evaluated by asking the system they proposed, brands they specified and overall ballpark construction cost of the project and this should be compared with the offer of other consultants.