1. Historical Background
The consulting industry in Nepal received new opportunities and challenges from early-seventies when government departments started using private professional to provide services in small scale engineering projects. Since then, though the industry is in a continuous path of growth, the parallel support from the concerned quarters of the formulation of appropriate polices, regulations and environment for healthy development could not take place.
Thus, in order to protect the interest of consulting industry of the country, the Society of Consulting Architectural & Engineering firms, Nepal (SCAEF) was registered with the then HMG/N on November 20, 1990 under the collective endeavor of the professional consulting firms. The Government has recognized SCAEF as the National Body on August 15, 1996 and has designed Ministry of Physical Planning and Works as "Line Ministry" to look after the interest of SCAEF and its member firms on February 22, 2005. The Public Works Directives (PWD), January 2002, published by the then HMG/N requires the consulting firms to be registered with the professional societies mandatory for getting short listed to participate in proposal submission.

2. The Goals
SCAEF is a non-government organization established with the broader goals to develop the consulting industry in Nepal.

• by contributing to nation building through the provision of skillful and professional services.

• By safeguarding the professional rights, interest, privileges and duties of the consulting profession.

3. The Objectives
The objectives of SCAEF are to:
(a) encourage the development and upliftment of the business and professional interest of Nepalese Consulting firms.
(b) Create a conducive atmosphere for healthy competition amongst consulting firms.
(c) Create a situation conducive to greater participation by Nepalese Consulting in development projects within Nepal and abroad and lessen Nepal's dependence on foreign consultants
(d) Enable small firms to render consulting services in large scale projects through joint ventures, and
(e) Setup affiliation with international societies and associations.

4. Eligibility for Membership
The constitution of SCAEF has laid the following eligibility criteria for membership:
(a) Membership is limited to Nepalese registered consulting firms only.
(b) Companies operated by employees of Government and Government owned corporations are not eligible for the membership.
(c) The member shall strictly adhere to the constitutional provisions are the directives given by the Executive Committee of SCAEF.
(d) For membership with voting rights, at least one of the proprietors or partners or directors of the firm shall be graduate from a recognized institution in the field recognized by Nepal Engineering Council for its membership. Such proprietors or partners or directors should have full time involvement in the firm.
(e) The Consulting Firm registered, but not matching the criteria as mentioned in (d) above can only be an affiliated member with no voting rights.

5. Activities and Achievement of SCAEF in the Last 16 Years
Of the several actions undertaken, the following are some of the major achievement made by SCAEF to wards the development of Consulting Services:

• A remarkable solidarity has been shown by the member firms towards the institutional and professional development of the society.

• A firm stand taken by the member firms in protest against the detrimental provisions in the Financial Administrative Regulation (FAR) used by the then HMG/N and other Nepalese institutions for the procurement of the consulting services, has led to the amendments in the then HMG/N's Financial Administration Regulations with the following results:
    >> The lowest bidding system has been abolished for selection of consultants and QCBS system with the weightage of 80% for technical and 20% in general, for financial proposal has been adopted by the government while evaluating the proposal.
    >> The abolishing of the bid bond and performance bond.
  >> Tax Deduction at Source of Payment has been reduced from 15% to 1.5% of the total payable amount.