CON4436 Sustainability & Engineering

Profession

Lesson 12: Engineering Ethics & Competences –

guarding against conflict of interests

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 Lesson Intended Learning Outcomes

1. Identify legal and ethical issues in engineering

profession.

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 Summary

1. Case study in legal and ethical issues in engineering

profession.

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 Reference

1. HKIE Rules of Conduct. The Hong Kong Institutes of Engineers.

http://www.hkie.org.hk/docs/downloads/membership/Rules_of_Conduct(May2
003).
pdf

2. The Hong Kong Institutes of Engineers. (2011). Ethics in Practice – A Practice

Guide for Professional Engineers. The Hong Kong Institutes of Engineers.

http://
www.hkie.org.hk/docs/downloads/membership/forms/ETHICS_IN_PRACTIC
E.PDF

3. http://www.icac.org.hk/en/law/case/index.html
Study the following two cases:
1.The 26 Public Housing Blocks case
2.Short piling

4. http://www.icac.org.hk/hkedc/eng/main2.asp
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 Key legal and ethical issues to be highlighted

1. Offering and acceptance of illegal advantages

2. Fraud
3. Preservation of confidential information
4. Conflicts of interest
5. Professional proficiency

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 Offering and acceptance of illegal advantages

1. The offering and acceptance of bribes can unfairly affect judgment

and decision, and seriously impair the interests of clients and other
stakeholders.

2. To prevent non-compliance, engineers are obliged to thoroughly

understand the standards set in the HKIE’s Rules of Conduct and
the requirements of related provisions stipulated in the Prevention
of Bribery Ordinance (PBO).

3. The PBO, governing both the private and the public sectors, is the
law against corruption.

Case: Taking bribes for awarding projects.

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 Fraud
1. Fraud often comes hand in hand with corruption and they
feed on each other.

2. Fraud in the engineering practice will undermine the trust

placed on engineers by employers, clients and the public in
general.

Case: Defrauding by giving false information.

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 Preservation of confidential information
1. Engineers have a duty of loyalty to clients and employers
that requires them to preserve confidentiality of
information.

2. This is a well-established principle as most information

about how a business is run and its products and services
directly affects the company’s ability to compete in the
marketplace.

3. Besides, some information may, on the surface, appear to

have little value or interest to the public in general but is of
value to culprits.

Case: Leaking tender information.

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 Conflict of interest
1. A conflict of interest arises when personal interest of an
engineer competes with the interests of his employer of
clients.

2. Conflict of interest can distort and cast doubt on the

reliability of professional judgment, sow seeds of distrust
and in its most serious form can result in corruption.

Case: Favouritism to contractor

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 Professional proficiency
1. To be competent, an engineer should have a good mastery
of technical knowledge and skills as well as the capability to
apply them with due care and diligence.

2. In exercising professional judgment and discretion in a

trustworthy and responsible way, ethical and technical
considerations are very often inextricably bound.

Case: Lax site supervision

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