1.

XYZ Company awarded a contract of building work in NTC at the same place after
dismantling an existing old building. The construction period is fixed for 18 months and the
delay of construction will lead to penalties of Rs. 20000 per day up to 10 percent of the
contract price (i.e. Rs. 50M). The prime contractor sublet the dismantling work for 2million
rupees to be done within four weeks. Right now, the same old building is being used by NTC
for his office work. As per provision of contract, NTC should have evacuated the old building
within four weeks from the date established by the prime contractor. Even after the end of
nine months, NTC had not shifted the office from the old building. Now NTC has cleared the
building but the sublet parties refuse to dismantle the building at the same cost once agreed.
Now, from the engineering contract aspect, what do you suggest? Discuss the situation.
Above situation includes a client (NTC) asking contractor to dismantle and
reconstruct the building for certain agreed price. But the NTC didn’t not evacuate the building
within a month instead delayed it by 9 months. The contractor now has argued that he
cannot work in same agreed cost. This is a prime example of contract breach. Contracts by
default are made such that they work only at particular time particular place. We shall
discuss each parties case and finalize our suggestion.
Client here has the major responsibility here. NTC didn’t evacuate the building immediately.
Another hidden negligence of NTC is also visible here, i.e. of using unsafe structure to be
dismantled for the period of 9 months. Accidents can happen anytime and running the
administration for 9 months is not good thing. Particularly after nation had seen devastation
of earthquake recently. Such minor negligence in project has been cause of major accident
in many of such project.
Contractor had then argued that he/she can’t work on same price as agreed upon. Contracts
are not lasting forever. And the mutual agreement clearly works on particular time. The case
here put by contractor is understandable as economic changes over nearly a year can bring
major fluctuations in money market of products making them cheaper of more expensive.
Contractors argument therefore appears valid.
The situation doesn’t involve any third party. The major responsibility being NTC (client), a
negotiation can be done between client and contractor. The negotiation may include re
quotation of price, penalty duration to be verified. If this case goes to legalities, then also the
judgement will be favored towards contractor. It seems better to just stand in table and
negotiate with little bit of give and take by client NTC. And NTC also must be careful that it
doesn’t keep running unsafe structures for significant amount of time.

2. Thousands of passenger’s travels through the Prithivi Highway every day. The monsoon,
however, has made their journey perilous, especially in Dhading area. As soon as it starts
raining, the road gets blocked by the debris falling from sand mines above, leaving the
passengers stranded. Passengers find themselves helpless in the middle of the road during
hours-long roadblock. In the last few days, the road has been blocked regularly. On
Saturday, it remained blocked for around seven hours. Interestingly, the authority did not
have to go through hassles to find workers to clear the road however. Since it was not other
kind of debris, but heaps of sand, workers were deployed by the factories themselves. The
factories based in Baireni were competing to collect the maximum amount of sand. “They do
not pay any tax to the government. They are here only to make profit and the authority is not
bothered”. But this has been troubling travelers, troubling passengers every day. Assess the
situation.
 The above situation reveals a common social problem of exploiting natural resources
without government permission. The problem here is primarily of road blocking due to debris
and sands falling from sand mines above. This has caused problems to passengers
travelling in national highways waiting to be queued for seven hours. The situation clearly
reveals fault of government but we shall deal with each party.
The working body here are just factories and the government. The government holds the
main rights of properties and resources of the country. The reason these resources aren’t
allowed to go publicly exploited is that the natural resources are not only assets of the
country but also their destruction can bring many households at the risks. Recent events
have shown unsafe scrapping of hills causing landslide and significant damage to many
villages. Nature has a chain of working mechanism in which if one fails say sand dune,
several problems are likely to happen. The second problem here is of blocked road which
could have been addressed by contracting labor to clear the sands and debris.
The sand companies are taking sand illegally. Which can easily be fined and even prisoned
for. Doing illegal tasks themselves are unethical and needn’t be argued upon. Its duty of
public to protect and preserve resources and not harm the asset of the country. But this
appears in different section of crime.
More often government themselves have been found to have worked with private sand
companies to make illegal profits. If found such they must be immediately punished.
Besides, such problems are supposed to bring different departments like transportation into
play and work to solve it but it also isn’t observed. The negligence and lesser work motive
have been observed to be common characteristics of government lately. This must be strictly
assessed via bringing stronger administration. In this case however, the road blocking can
be stopped immediately by contracting with labors. It is better to not work with labors of sand
company as it can make false sense of supporting them in illegal exploitation of sand. But
immediate action must be taken to open road and long-term action to prevent natural
resource exploitation.

3. Galaxy Enterprise (GE) is a giant supplier of construction materials. GE arranged a

function and invited about 150 engineers/architects for a dinner at a five-star hotel to
promote the recently introduced anti-termite product in Nepalese market. Mr. CK is a
consulting engineer who has been assigned to write specifications for a National Theatre
Building Project. Consulting engineer Mr. CK approximating the new product introduced by
GE and is about to incorporate its features in the specification. Executive Director of GE Mr.
X invited Mr. CK for dinner in his house. Mr. X and Mr. CK are alumni of the same school.
How should personal relations come into this matter? Discuss the situation.

This case involved a consultant and supplier. The consultant and supplier were of the
same school and the supplier had invited consultant to a dinner at five-star hotel to promote
anti-termite product in Nepalese market. The consultant also has been assigned to write
specification for a National Theatre Building Project. Here, we shall deal based on possible
situations.
In first case, we assume the consultant goes to the dinner of promotion of anti-termite
product. Being a friend, he may be asked to help his friend in supporting the newly launched
product in different types of project. And he may include them in his product. This may cause
the final project to work in favor of his friend which directly becomes unethical according to
engineering ethics which states that professional work shouldn’t be done for personal benefit
without speaking to everyone associated.
In second case, we can assume that he doesn’t go to the dinner and he may just design the
product based on his intentions and motives. This may bring slight troubles to his friendship.
This ensures his profession is clear and ethical. Also makes sure that project is constructed
of best quality without external interference.
In third case, we can assume that he goes to the dinner. He understands the upsides and
downsides of the product. And if he found them to be any good, he may consider them after
discussing with the client and if not found good he may encourage and suggest his friend to
bring products that are more likely to be used best in construction market. This protects all of
his relation. It is not unethical by any means.
The problem with current trend is that people become too much strict in ethical ground
bringing about lot of problems in their personal relations. It is of greatest importance that
personal loss should not equal to professional gain or vice versa. One can always stay with
friends and have great time within ethical ground. Being an ethical engineer doesn’t imply
one has to live at the woods. But important thing is notifying all concerned authority. This
limits all unethical decision and builds a better working environment where people
continuously learn and grow without affecting the economic, social and personal lives of
professionals. This however is not applicable to public or government entity which keeps
everyone equal, therefore can not promote one product over another. If in this case the
consultant works from government then he can still go to promotion dinner, meet his friend
but then make decision based on performance of all products in the market. However, in
this, I would go to meet my friend, bring its specification, compare with available products
and then choose based on best performance.