The Asociación Peruana de Consultoría (APC), Peru's national consulting engineering association and FIDIC member, has secured a series of concrete improvements to Peru's public contracting framework, changes that strengthen the legal recognition, fair remuneration, and professional standing of consulting engineers in public procurement.
The reforms were achieved through sustained strategic engagement with Peru's Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), the Organismo Especializado para las Contrataciones Públicas Eficientes (OECE) and the national comptroller, culminating in changes to the Ley General de Contrataciones Públicas (Law 32069) and its regulations, which entered full force in April 2025 and have continued to be refined through early 2026.
Among the most significant achievements: pre-investment studies, the technical scoping and feasibility work that determines whether a project should proceed at all are now formally classified as engineering consultancy services, giving this critical phase the professional and contractual recognition it deserves. Separately, the new framework prohibits economic offers in engineering consultancy tendering from falling below 90% of the reference value, directly addressing the race-to-the-bottom fee undercutting that has long undermined service quality and the viability of consulting firms. Contract penalties have also been reduced from a maximum of 20% to 10% of the total contract value, a change that brings Peru closer to international norms and reduces the disproportionate risk exposure that had discouraged firms from taking on public sector work.
Additional reforms include the introduction of an incident log for real-time monitoring during project delivery, recognition of consultant experience going back up to 20 years in public competitions, and in a milestone for the sector's international ambitions, the formal inclusion of engineering consultancy in the export promotion plans of PROMPERÚ, Peru's national export and tourism promotion body.
These changes are the result of years of institutional advocacy by APC, which represents consulting engineering firms and works to ensure that the quality of professional advice is given its due weight in public contracting decisions. The association takes the position that infrastructure outcomes depend directly on the quality of the consulting work that precedes construction and that procurement frameworks must reflect this.
The reforms are also timely in a broader regional context. Concerns about predatory fee undercutting, inadequate recognition of pre-investment work and disproportionate contractual penalties are shared by consulting engineering associations across Latin America and beyond. APC's success in Peru offers a concrete model for how member associations can translate professional advocacy into durable legislative change.
