PUBLISHED ONApril 30, 2026 7:54 AMBYSean LerIn a rare move, Minister for National Development Chee Hong Tat announced a new annual rating survey for construction consultancy firms to rate and provide feedback on public sector agencies they are working with.
He was speaking at a leadership engagement and development summit for built environment leaders held at Gardens by the Bay on Thursday (April 30).
The minister said: "I spoke about allowing for two-way feedback between consultancy firms and government agencies, to foster a fairer system.
"In other words, not only have government agencies rate the consultants and provide feedback on their work, we will also encourage consultants to rate and provide feedback on the government agencies they work with."
He added that the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) will collate feedback through the survey without attributing it to any specific firm, so that firms can have a "safe channel" to share their experiences openly and candidly.
Chuck Kho, president of the Association of Consulting Engineers Singapore, said the reciprocal feedback system is a positive step towards enhancing transparency and collaboration across public sector procurement.
"By enabling open, two-way dialogue, it empowers both agencies and consultants to drive continuous improvement and achieve greater project outcomes together," he said.
According to BCA's public sector panels of consultants listing, there are five disciplines of consultancy firms: architectural, civil/structural, mechanical/electrical, quantity surveying, and project management.
They provide professional expertise across the entire building lifecycle, focusing on design, engineering, project management and cost control, while ensuring compliance with prevailing regulations such as the Building Control Act and the Fire Safety (Building Fire Safety) Regulations.
The minister also announced three other measures as part of pro-enterprise moves to improve productivity, including the progressive removal of overseas testing for new construction workers.
The change is expected to "significantly reduce" hiring timelines from the current four months to about one month, and enable better matching between workers' skills and job requirements.
According to BCA, the cessation of overseas testing will first apply to construction work permit holders from China and Thailand from January next year, before being expanded to cover all source countries.
But the move is not a compromise on standards or quality, with new workers still required to be tested locally here.
If construction firms and such new workers do not get their skills certified within the first six months after the a work permit is issued, the workers will be subject to higher levy rates.
"This will incentivise firms to train and certify their workers in a timely manner, while they are deployed quickly to job roles that match their training," Chee explained.
The two other measures pertain to design standardisation for better efficiency, quality and productivity.
Under the new measures, developers who adopt the "Kit-of-Parts" approach, standardising precast components across projects of similar typologies, will only need to submit one design standardisation plan and a catalogue of standardised components.
They will no longer be required to submit separate applications for each building project to BCA.
Kit-of-parts combine manufacturing solutions within a design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) workflow, allowing companies to "break" buildings down into larger components that can be precision-manufactured and transported to site for rapid assembly.
HDB, which already adopts standardisation, will also explore ways to standardise precast components across its pipeline of BTO projects.
It is currently developing an enhanced precast component catalogue, which it said will cover a comprehensive range of standard precast components.
"This is to enhance build quality, raise construction productivity, and strengthen resilience across projects," Chee added.
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