Florida CCNA Limits: Dollar Caps, Contingent Fees, and Penalties

Florida’s Consultants’ Competitive Negotiation Act sets the compliance rules and penalties that govern how public agencies hire architects, engineers, landscape architects, and surveyors, and how those professionals may pursue the work. Codified at Florida Statutes Section 287.055, the law requires qualifications-based selection above certain cost thresholds, prohibits contingent fees, and backs both requirements with contract termination, criminal misdemeanor charges, professional license discipline, and a 36-month ban from public work through the convicted vendor list.¹

When the CCNA Applies

The statute covers “professional services” within the scope of architecture, professional engineering, landscape architecture, or registered surveying and mapping, along with related work these licensed professionals perform in connection with their practice.¹ The “agencies” bound by the law include the state, state agencies, municipalities, political subdivisions, school districts, and school boards. Nongovernmental developers contributing public facilities under development-of-regional-impact statutes are excluded.

The full public announcement and competitive negotiation process is triggered when a project’s estimated basic construction cost exceeds the Section 287.017 Category Five threshold, or when planning or study fees exceed the Category Two threshold.² Below those numbers, an agency may use other procurement methods. But if the proposals that come back under an alternative method mostly land above the threshold, the agency must reject all of them and restart under the full CCNA procedure.

Agencies are required to make a good faith cost estimate in deciding which track applies. Underestimating to stay below the threshold is one of the more common ways a selection ends up challenged.

The Selection Process Agencies Must Follow

The compliance core of the CCNA is that qualifications come first and price comes later. Skipping steps, blending them, or letting cost influence ranking is where awards get invalidated.

Public Announcement

The agency publicly announces the project with a general description of the work and instructions on how firms can apply for consideration.² The only exception is a valid public emergency certified by the agency head.

Evaluation and Ranking

The agency selects at least three firms it considers most highly qualified. The statute lists the factors the selection committee must consider: the ability of professional personnel, whether the firm is a certified minority business enterprise, past performance, willingness to meet time and budget requirements, location, recent and projected workloads, and the volume of work the agency has previously awarded to that firm.¹ The prior-volume factor reflects a legislative goal of distributing contracts equitably, but only where doing so does not override the principle of choosing the most qualified firm.

Competitive Negotiation

Once rankings are set, the agency negotiates compensation with the top-ranked firm. If the parties reach a price the agency considers fair, competitive, and reasonable, the contract is awarded. If not, the agency formally terminates negotiations with that firm and moves to the second-ranked firm, then to the third if needed. If all three fail, the agency selects additional firms in order of qualifications and continues negotiating until a deal is reached.² Sequential negotiation is the point: agencies cannot pit firms against each other on price.

Continuing Contract Dollar Caps

The CCNA allows continuing contracts for ongoing work, but each individual task assigned under one is capped. The estimated construction cost of each project under a continuing contract cannot exceed $7.5 million, and the fee for each individual study cannot exceed $500,000.¹

A 2024 amendment introduced inflation indexing. Beginning July 1, 2025, and each July 1 after, the Florida Department of Management Services adjusts the $7.5 million construction threshold using the year-over-year change in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, publishing the adjusted amount on its website.¹ Firms holding continuing contracts should verify that published figure each year, because it determines which projects can be issued under an existing contract and which require a fresh competitive selection.

Design-Build Contracts Are Mostly Outside the CCNA

The CCNA generally does not govern the procurement of design-build contracts; agencies follow whatever other procurement law or ordinance applies.² One piece stays inside: the design criteria package that defines a design-build project must be prepared and sealed by a design criteria professional. If the agency retains an outside professional to prepare that package, the selection must follow the full CCNA process. A firm that prepares the design criteria package is barred from bidding on the resulting design-build contract.

The Contingent Fee Ban and Criminal Exposure

The CCNA prohibits contingent fees outright. Every contract must contain a warranty from the architect, engineer, or surveyor stating that no company or individual, other than a bona fide employee, was retained to solicit or secure the contract, and that no fee, commission, or gift was paid contingent on the award.²

A breach hits from two directions. The agency can terminate the contract without liability and recover the full amount of any contingent fee paid. Separately, the conduct is criminal. Soliciting an agency contract for professional services in exchange for a contingent fee is a first degree misdemeanor. Paying such a fee is a first degree misdemeanor. So is any agency official soliciting or securing a contract in exchange for contingent compensation.² A first degree misdemeanor in Florida carries up to one year in jail and a $1,000 fine.

The reach is broader than many firms assume. Paying a lobbyist or consultant a success bonus tied to winning a public contract falls inside the ban. Any arrangement where a third party’s pay depends on whether the agency awards the contract counts, whatever the parties label it.

Business and Professional Penalties

The Convicted Vendor List

Florida Statutes Section 287.133 establishes the convicted vendor list, a registry of firms and individuals barred from doing business with any Florida public entity after conviction of a “public entity crime.” The statute defines that term as any state or federal law violation directly related to public procurement, including fraud, bribery, collusion, racketeering, conspiracy, theft, and material misrepresentation.³

Once listed, a firm and its affiliates cannot submit bids, proposals, or replies on any public entity contract, and cannot perform work as a contractor, subcontractor, or consultant for any Florida public entity for 36 months.³ “Affiliates” is defined broadly to sweep in predecessors, successors, and entities under the control of a person convicted of a public entity crime. Even a joint venture with someone convicted within the prior 36 months can pull a firm into affiliate status.

Professional License Discipline

The Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation licenses architects and engineers and can discipline them independently of any criminal proceeding. The Board of Professional Engineers can revoke or suspend a license, impose administrative fines of up to $5,000 per violation, issue a reprimand, order probation, restrict the scope of practice, or require restitution.⁴ The board can also assess investigation and prosecution costs against the licensee, with penalty severity rising for repeat violations of the same provision.⁵ For a firm that depends on public work, even a short suspension effectively closes the door to selections for the duration and carries into future evaluations.

Federal Debarment

Firms holding federal contracts face an extra layer of exposure. Under federal acquisition regulations, a state-level conviction for antitrust violations related to bid submissions is an independent ground for federal debarment, and any offense indicating “a lack of business integrity or business honesty that seriously and directly affects the present responsibility of a Government contractor” can trigger debarment across all federal agencies.⁶ A fraud or collusion conviction arising from a Florida municipal project can cost a firm its eligibility for federal work nationwide.

Where Compliance Actually Breaks Down

Most CCNA problems are not dramatic fraud cases. They are procedural. Agencies abbreviate the public announcement and invite protests from firms that never got the chance to compete. Selection committees let cost information into the ranking phase, or weight price too heavily, which contradicts the qualifications-first mandate and can void an entire selection.

Agencies sometimes misclassify a project to avoid the CCNA altogether. If work clearly requires professional engineering or architectural services but the agency frames it as something else, the classification can be challenged. Reviewers look at the substance of the work rather than the label.

On the firm side, the contingent fee ban catches arrangements that do not feel like contingent fees at first glance. Success-based lobbying fees, finder’s fees, and any third-party compensation tied to the award decision fall inside the prohibition, and the criminal exposure runs to the firm, the intermediary, and any agency official on the other side of the arrangement.

1
Florida Senate. Florida Code 287.055 – Acquisition of Professional Architectural, Engineering, Landscape Architectural, or Surveying and Mapping Services
2
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 287.055 – Acquisition of Professional Architectural, Engineering, Landscape Architectural, or Surveying and Mapping Services
3
Florida Senate. Florida Code 287.133 – Public Entity Crime; Denial or Revocation of the Right to Transact Business With Public Entities
4
Online Sunshine. Florida Code 471.033 – Disciplinary Proceedings
5
Legal Information Institute. Florida Administrative Code R. 61G6-10.002 – Violations and Penalties
6
eCFR. 48 CFR 9.406-2 – Causes for Debarment