Gatela, John Patrick B.

Research Methods | A399

There are multiple of malpractices in Civil Engineering, it includes corruption, plagiarism,

environmental damage, unsafe work environment, Consultation Failures, Measurement failures,
etc. The most common malpractice in my field of study is corruption, every jobs contains
corruption and there’s no job with no corruption. Even a small pocketed money indicates as
corruption. Many consultancy firms overestimate the cost of the project and tend to trick their
client on to putting far more price than the original project cost. It is understandable for the
Contractors/Civil Engineer to overestimate the total cost since there are factors that can affect
the estimated cost. One of the best examples that I found on Internet is the Labor cost and
Material cost, this is one of the bases to overestimate the total project cost. Some are standard
materials are very costly depending on the quality and brand of the materials, aside from that
labor cost also changes due to some construction worker overwork their jobs. But overall
overestimation without basis is a pure sign of corruption.

The next malpractice is the Plagiarism, In Civil engineering field there are multiple of
engineers who are very eager on designing their structure but for some instances many so
called “Engineers by profession” does plagiarism, I don’t have any basis or evidences to support
this claim but base on my understanding there are people in social media’s who steals the
design of other engineers and some don’t even ask for permission. Based on my Engineer
friend who designs 1-2 story building in YouTube which is Manzano Graphic Design his design
was plagiarize by another engineer who actually own it as his design, he even started to
construct it as he claims he owns that design.

The next malpractices is the Environmental damage, some Civil Engineer did not
consider the effects of constructing their proposed development plan, some did not consider the
environmental effects as long they can accumulate more money. Example of this is by not
including environmental management plan to their development plan, it is one of the basis for
malpractices in the field of Civil Engineering. As you can observe in every construction, it is very
common to cut/remove all the vegetations present in the area but removing vegetations outside
their vicinity/scope is a sign of environmental damage thus becomes a CE malpractice. Another
form of malpractice is the Unsafe work environment, it is very common also in the field of Civil
Engineering because some practices due to corruptions can cause austerity to their budget
allocations and process. The example of this case is by rejecting Osh standards like not wearing
safety vest/steel toes/hard hats/any safety gears, no guardrail systems, no safety net systems,
or no personal fall arrest systems. Few examples of this case is the some Civil
Engineers/Contractors doesn’t require their laborers/foremen to use this kind of systems most
especially to the small projects like 2-3 story buildings.
The next malpractice that I noticed is the consultation failures, some Engineers doesn’t
consult their clients after some minor to major changes of the original plans, some are
invalidating their clients and already proceeded to their own plans without even consulting to
their clients. Few of the examples are commonly found in TikTok reels, and Facebook wherein
they post their sentiments about their frustration on the projects which mishandled by an
Engineer.
The other malpractice is measurement failures which is very common in civil engineering
field. Some of the workers/laborers are manipulating the measurements and adjusting based on
their own knowledge and instincts. This is very crucial in design a building because some
estimations will lead to poor quality of work. Some examples I can say is mixing of cement and
not using measurement devices that leads to slightly misaligned.
These malpractices can be avoided by simply following the NBCP guidelines, putting
Integrity in every project, avoiding speculations in terms of specifications without further
research and inspections, Propose your own design/plan, consult your clients if there are
changes in proposed designs, and do it with passion not just for money. Because malpractices
are always avoidable as long as you have your own grounds on what you’re doing.

SOURCES:

https://www.constructconnect.com/blog/8-common-construction-estimating-mistakes

https://www.getlegal.com/legal-info-center/personal-injuries-law/other-professional-malpractice/

https://dailycivil.com/current-environmental-issues-for-construction-and-their-solution/

https://www.osha.gov/sites/default/files/publications/OSHA3146.pdf