Abstract
The scope of public procurement is not limited to the areas of architecture and civil engineering. It involves areas related
to various design fields, which causes the problem of how to select intellectual-value producers in public procurement
projects. Here, I would like to clarify some aspects of this problem. Design in public procurement includes many
specialized domains such as spatial design, graphic design, craft design, interior design, industrial design, sign design and
fashion design. As with architecture and civil engineering, methods used for choosing designers often depend on how much
their works would cost. In addition, as intellectual-value creating services fall short of receiving appropriate recognition,
procurement of those services tends to be handled in the same way as procuring goods or decided by free public offering.
Such practices are questionable because design creation is so intellectual that it is inappropriate to commission a designrelated
project solely by the amount of money it costs. That leads me to the conclusion that it is necessary to revise the
Accounting Law and the Local Autonomy Act to introduce a new standard for selecting intellectual-value producers in the
same manner as discussed in the architecture and civil engineering fields.
