I am thinking it may be related to the question of liability for the building code issues.
Here in Canada the building inspectors often rely on a system of schedules from the engineers and architect but they do not come from the electrical contractor, they come from a professional. I don't know about the US Building code but many performance requirments for electrical systems are defined in the building code. Things like how a fire alarm operates, where the devices must be installed. Emergency lighting is not defined in the CEC for location only how they are to be supplied and operate. Things like smoke control, sprinklers, elevator operation relative to how they work when a fire is in the building, exiting and a lot of other things that have electrical equipment that must operate in specific manner relative to the building code.
In Canada an electrical contractor that is not an engineer would never be asked to provide any such declaration as without a professional's seal it has no legal weight here. I think that BI was looking for such an assurance from the electrical designer but in the acbsence of an electrical engineer maybe an architect should provide that piece of paper. I doubt that the EC would know all the answers a BI is looking for>
