Ethics and Professionalism in Engineering

Info: 8531 words (34 pages) Dissertation
Published: 30th Sep 2021

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You are assigned by your employer to prospect an area for an extractable material. However, in the course of your work, you discover no such object material but some other valuable material which your employer is not interested. On the other hand, the information which you have is of great importance to the adjoining interest.

As an engineer can you release the particular information which you have to the other party so that the other valuable material may be explored?

ABSTRACT

Engineer is the profession in which knowledge of the mathematical and natural sciences gained by study, experience, and practice is applied for judgement to develop ways to utilize, economically, the materials and forces of nature for the benefit of mankind. Engineers from various discipline share knowledges and experiences to enhance in innovation and technologies. However, engineers are advised to register for Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) for the purposes of enact and execute Engineers Act based on the regulation and guide all practicing engineers with code of professional conduct. Engineers shall always refer to the Code of Professional Conduct to ensure safety, prevent exploitation of the client, and preserve the integrity of the profession.

As members of this profession, engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. Engineering has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, impartiality, fairness, and equity, and must be dedicated to the protection against the public health, safety, and welfare. Engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior that requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct. This assignment indicates that an engineer shall act in professional matters for each employer or client as faithful agents or trustees, and shall avoid conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflicts of interest. While acting in professional capacity, the engineer shall disclose in writing to his client of the fact if he is a director or member of or substantial shareholder in or agent for any contracting or manufacturing company or firm or business or has any financial interest in any such company or firm or business, with which he deals on behalf of his client. This paper encourages us as engineer to respect the proprietary information and intellectual property rights of others, including charitable organizations and professional societies in the engineering field.

1) Issues in the global and national interests

2) Issues in the Interests of Industry

3) Issues in the Interests of the Profession

4) Case 1: Causes of Building Collapse

PROBLEM STATEMENT

OBJECTIVE

CONTENTS

1.0 Listing the paramount concerns to employer

2.0 Avoid waste of natural resources, damage of the environment, and wasteful damage or destruction of the products of human skill and industry.

3.0 Attention to new developments in science and engineering

4.0 Give objective and reliable opinions in professional capacity

5.0 Undertake assignments follow the qualified by education & experience.

6.0 Preparing formal and professional report to employer

7.0 Disclosing all potential interest and paramount our employer interest

8.0 Conducting ourselves honorably, responsibly, ethically and lawfully

9.0 Do not directly or indirectly receive any royalty, gratuity or commission, except permitted by employer

CONCLUSION

REFERENCES

APPENDICES

A. IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct

B. Plagiarism Status

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Percentage Frequency of Causes of Building Collapse in Four Countries (1960-2010)

Table 2: Dangerous and Reaction of Materials

Table 3: Nature of Materials

Table 4: Chemical Reactions

Table 5: Nature of wastage

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Causes of Building Collapse

INTRODUCTION

The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia (IEM) is a society to advance and promote the science and profession of engineering in any or all of its disciplines and to facilitate the exchange of information and ideas related to engineering. it was established in 1959 and primary. It is a professional learned society contain more than 23,000 members is Malaysia, overseas and some communities involved in engineering field. The code of ethics was formed by IEM and it covers all the major disciplines of engineering practiced in Malaysia. IEM is governed by the constitution and by law in which include the regulation of professional conduct. IEM’s missions are to promote sound professional engineering practice in support of the socioeconomic development objectives of the nation, service the needs and interests of its members and the public and uphold the social standing and image of the engineering profession as well as contribute toward nation building and shall strive to enhance society’s consciousness of science, engineering and technology.

Based on the engineer’s code of ethics, as a profession, an engineer shall at all times uphold the dignity, standing and reputation of the profession by his behavior, actions and words. The Engineering Professional plays a paramount role in developing country. And also, is an important and learned profession where there is the creative application of scientific knowledge to analyze, design, construct and operate the products and services of societal needs with full cognizance of the environment, sustainable development and foremost the safety, health and welfare to human life.

Besides that, ethics is the moral governing what is right and wrong conduct or act. Morality is whole of decisions, opinions and actions with which people express what is right or wrong. It helps engineers to think morally and independently about the moral issue, to the situation which might arise at work. Ethical problems in engineering are often complex and involve conflicting ethical principles. Engineers must be able to resolve these conflicts and reach a defensible decision, for example commercial motives. On the whole, the importance of engineering ethics is promoting engineers to maintain principles during his or her working in engineer area. There have some main principles for engineer should be followed:

a) Perform in the area of competence (If not, disaster could happen).

b) No conflict of interest (No self-vested interest).

c) Conduct themselves honorably (No bribes and fraud, punishment if caught).

d) Honest and faithful to client and employer (Confidentiality and propriety information).

e) Consideration for environment (DOE strict standards).

f) Public safety, health and welfare (Engineers work for the society).

ISSUES

Main issues in the context of global and national interests, interests of the industry, interests of the profession.

1) Issues in the global and national interests

The European Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA) has been involved in negotiations with the European Commission on the conflict of interest issue with respect to the procurement of consulting services. To date, the Commission is maintaining a very strict interpretation of conflict of interest contrary to the position of the consulting engineering industry [1].

EFCA believes that cases of conflict of interest should be restricted to very well defined circumstances, such as:

conflict between consulting activities and the procurement of goods or works;
certain conflicts within consulting assignments, for example the preparation of terms of reference and participation in the resulting tenders;
the execution of a project or study execution and the evaluation of the same project or study;
the design of a project and the study of its impact on the environment;
advice given to both government and buyer in, for example, privatization;
a conflict arising from family or other personal relationships.

EFCA further states that the fact that a consultant has participated in a previous phase of a project, other than the preparation of the terms of reference, is not per se a conflict of interest as long as all preliminary investigation documents are made available to all participants to ensure fair and transparent procurement.

2) Issues in the Interests of Industry

An industry will face conflict between consulting activities and procurement of goods and services. For example, the industry or firm has been engaged by a borrower to provide goods, works or services for a project and any of its affiliates, shall be disqualified from providing consulting services related to those goods, works or services, unless the potential conflict arising from this situation has been identified and resolved in a manner acceptable to the client throughout the selection process and the execution of the contract.

Conversely, a firm engaged to provide consulting services for the preparation or implementation of a project, and any of its affiliates, shall be disqualified from subsequently providing goods or works or services resulting from or directly related to the firm’s earlier consulting services, unless the potential conflict arising from this situation has been identified and resolved in a manner acceptable to the client throughout the selection process and the execution of the contract

3) Issues in the Interests of the Profession

In difficult times, there can be financial pressures on engineers to earn extra income to improve their current and future financial security, for themselves and their families. Some alternatives could be moonlighting for other employers, consulting on their own, starting a small business, working for a friend or relative, or investing in their business.

Unfortunately, all these income opportunities also present the potential for conflicts of interest between the engineer and his or her primary employer. Examples would include the following concerns:

the performance of duty to primary employer being diluted by efforts on outside business interests;
the possible preferential treatment of suppliers or customers with which the employee engineer has an outside business relationship;
the possible risk of disclosure of confidential employer information to suppliers, customers or even competitors; and
the risk of losing business to a competitor using the employee engineer or to the engineer’s own business.

Clearly, engineers must try to avoid or eliminate these types of conflicts. Another case of potential conflicts of interest for engineers is in the purchasing and related marketing functions. In particular, the treatment of giving and receiving of gifts and entertainment between buyer and seller presents obvious possibilities for conflicts. Employers do not want their purchasing agents to be unduly influenced by gifts or entertainment benefits, resulting in unwarranted special treatment for a supplier. The result is potentially higher prices and lower quality and service standards than would otherwise happen if unbiased buying judgments were being made.

In other words, a purchasing agent could be putting his or her personal benefit ahead of duty to his or her employer. There is a less obvious effect of accepting gifts and entertainment, even for relatively minor examples. When other suppliers observe this, there can easily be a perception of a conflict of interest, and of resultant preferential treatment of a competing supplier by a buyer. Something as apparently innocuous as a baseball cap with a competitor’s logo sitting on a cabinet in a buyer’s office can cause the wrong perception. Think what the reaction could be to repeated observations of a buyer at fancy dinners or Maple Leafs’ hockey games with a competitor’s salesperson.

4) Case 1: Causes of Building Collapse

Table 1: Percentage Frequency of Causes of Building Collapse in Four Countries (1960-2010)

Figure 1: Causes of Building Collapse

In order to support the argument about the important of code of Professional Conduct that members of a Profession must follow, an example about the causes of building collapsed have been used as shown in Table 1 and Figure 1 above. This case is involved four countries which is Malaysia, Nigeria, Singapore and Thailand. But before proceed to the causes of building collapse, a short description that defined a building collapsed is as a result of its structural failure. The structural failure is means loss of the load-carrying capacity of a component or member within a structure or the structure itself. Structural failure is initiated when the material is stressed to its strength limit, thus causing fracture or excessive deformations.

In a well-designed system, a localized failure should not cause immediate or even progressive collapse of the entire structure. Therefore, an investigation related to this case have been conducted. The results found that specifications and safety procedures have been compromised in the interest of profit and speed. This lead to the construction flaws and accidents to occur. On top of that, buildings generally are supposed to be constructed in conformity to the laid down standards and rules.

Based on the table above, there are eight causes of building collapse which is structural failure, faulty design, poor workmanship, substandard materials, due to surrounding development, illegal conversion, inexperience contractor and including building usage. The highest percentage is 36% that have been contribute by the structural failure while for the least percentage 2.23%, the building collapse occurred due to surrounding development. For Malaysia, inexperience contractor, faulty design and due to surrounding development are the main causes the building collapse occurred.

These issues are explained by the collapsed of the sports stadium at Kuala Terengganu in Malaysia and concluded that some of the factors are familiar and common in our construction industry and almost every site is faced with these issues. The accident occurred because the laid down standard and procedure of constructing are not followed and resulting into such collapsed. Inadequate design, roof is not properly erected resulted into misalignment, no quality control on Site, Materials and Workmanship are not in accordance to specifications and alternative designs from Contractor is adopted without proper analysis are the factors lead to stadium collapse.

The results happen due to issue above of course will affects the above interests such as image as it gives a bad image of the Profession of Engineering because of the worst reputation. In terms of costs, there are more money will be wasted to repair the building compared to the interest of profit that get from takes substandard materials and make the project duration faster. Because of the using of the substandard materials that the price is cheaper; the risk is becoming higher. Therefore, the safety becomes low and will leads the accident to the public. Last but not least, in terms a law, these engineers have disobeyed the rules or regulations. They not conduct the codes, follow the ethics and at the same time they loss some respect to themselves as not be a man of integrity.

Thus, this case justifies that the important of code of Professional Conduct which is the members of a Profession must be followed. These rules or regulations are set to ensure safety, prevent exploitation of the client and preserve the integrity of the Profession. The five main sections for code of ethics are a Registered Engineer shall at all times hold the paramount the safety, health, welfare of the public, a Registered Engineer shall undertake assignments only if he is qualified by education and experience in the specific technical fields which he is involved, a Registered Engineer shall issue public statements only in an objective in truthful manner, a Registered shall act for each employer or clients as truthful agent or trustee and a Registered Engineer shall conduct himself honorably, responsibly, ethically and lawfully so as to enhance the honor, reputation and usefulness of the profession.

In short, the causes of collapse of building in accordance to the stages of construction and of building life, namely: planning and design stage, construction stage and the stage of building usage are occurred mainly due to interest of profit, project duration and lack of experience of the engineer. This issue can be solve if all the members of a Profession follow this code of ethics.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

You are assigned by your employer to prospect an area for an extractable material.
However, in the course of your work, you discover no such object material but some other valuable material which your employer is not interested.
On the other hand, the information which you have is of great importance to the adjoining interest.
As an engineer can we release the particular information which you have to the other party so that the other valuable material may be explored?
Discuss taking into consideration provisions of the IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct.

OBJECTIVE

To provide an opportunity for candidates to demonstrate their professionalism.
To allow candidates to gain some understanding of Institution of Engineering Malaysia (IEM) Regulations on Professional Conduct before entering Professional Interview.
To allow candidates more understand about the Code of Professional Conduct.
To demonstrate that candidates have thought sufficiently about the role of engineer in the society via Professional Conduct.
To enable candidates to write in clear and concise manner that is intelligible to laymen.

1.0 Listing the paramount concerns to employer

According to section (1) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall at all times take care to ensure that his work and the products of his work constitute no avoidable danger of death or injury or ill health to any person. I shall be listing down all the paramount concerns to my employer before I try to release the particular information which I have. A registered and qualified engineer also should always hold paramount about safety, health and welfare of the public [3].

First and for more, for the safety issues, I shall do my research well about safety of the valuable materials. For example, the nature of the valuable materials should be considered before an engineer decides some decision. Besides, danger of the valuable materials also should be considered especially the chemical reaction that may occur from those valuable materials. Besides, waste of the valuable materials after processed should also be concerned such as biodegradable, environmentally friendly or even recyclable. It is used to be ensure that the material is safe to be used in society or exploited.

Besides that, after considering nature of the valuable materials, the next important that have to be concerned is health of the public. Do the valuable materials that explored will affect the health of the public? The wastage of valuable materials that produced should be harmless and poison free to the public. For example, if the valuable materials are processed through heating, I shall ensure that gas released and wasted chemical are harmless to the public. Some methods can be used such as using filter to filter poison and harm wastage after the processing of valuable materials. All the wastages and gasses need to make sure is filtered harmless to environment and public health before flow it to the drain or exposed to the surrounding environment.

Next, the third concern that I shall consider is the welfare of the public. Benefits that can be developed to the public through exploring these valuable materials shall be listed. For example, multi uses of the valuable materials may help our country’s technology to achieve a grand new level. Besides, profits that can be earned by company are directly proportional to the development of the valuable materials. Economy of our country may be improved through this development and thus welfare of the public can be guarantee.

2.0 Avoid waste of natural resources, damage of the environment, and wasteful damage or destruction of the products of human skill and industry.

According to section (2) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall take all reasonable steps to avoid waste of natural resources, damage of the environment, and wasteful damage or destruction of the products of human skill and industry. Before giving out an opinion about the valuable materials, I shall do some research well in those materials. Research shall be done by holding paramount about safety, health and welfare of the public.

First and foremost, I shall explicitly care and concern about the technology’s impact on nature and the environment. Human interaction with the natural environment has imposed diverse impacts on the natural resources that have resulted to degradation and depletion of the biophysical surroundings, biodiversity and natural resources. Hence, I shall do research, planning, design, management and review of activities in a scientifically and technically objective manner. I will incorporate the best principle of design and environmental planning when recommending measures to reduce environmental harm and enhance environmental quality. For example, the nature of the valuable materials should be considered before exploring the new materials to ensure it does not contain any chemical or hazard that will pollute and damage the environment. I can only inform other parties or public officially after confirming that it is environmental friendly and does not cause any destruction to the environment.

Besides that, I shall abide by the principle of sustainability development during my research on exploitation of natural resources. Sustainable development is a dynamic process and it necessitates continual adjustments to cope with changes in the economy and the environment. This means that I shall reduce environmental risks and minimize the footprints in the environment. For an instance, I shall ensure that I will not stretch the use of natural resources to the maximum since most of them are non-renewable resources. Overspending and wastage of the materials will cause shortage of natural resources in future. Therefore, wherever I act, I shall contribute to sustainable development to avoid waste of natural resources. I can only inform other parties or public officially after all relevant considerations have made.

3.0 Attention to new developments in science and engineering

According to section (3) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall take all reasonable steps to maintain and develop his professional competence by attention to new developments in science and engineering relevant to his field of professional activity and, if he is an employer, shall encourage his professional employees to do likeness.

First and foremost, I shall always alert to new developments in science and engineering relevant to my field of professional activity. According to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) report “The Engineer of 2020” [4] paints a picture of a dynamically changing and evolving world. In 2020, technological innovation will continue its rapid pace; the world will be intensely interconnected; those involved with technology will need to be multidisciplinary; and social, cultural, political, and economic forces will impact technological innovation. With technology constantly moving and changing, it is important for me to keep up with technical changes in order to make sure that my technology skills do not become obsolete. For an instance, I shall improve my understanding of technology besides maintain and improve my technical competence. In this case, I will have enough knowledge and technology skills to explicitly analyse and identify the new material before releasing the particular information to public.

Furthermore, I shall always assist colleagues and co-workers in their professional development and support them in following the code of ethics. As an employer, I have to set personal professional goals and work towards them and also promote the development of employees and look for ways to improve their team’s skills. Offering opportunities for employees to improve is vital to the organisation’s success. Hence, I will encourage my employees to deepen their knowledge in their technical fields to stay up to date with the latest developments in order to develop their professional competence. In this case, they will also have enough knowledge and technology skills to explicitly analyse and identify the new material before releasing the particular information to public.

4.0 Give objective and reliable opinions in professional capacity

According to section (6) in IEM Regulation on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall called upon to give an opinion in his professional capacity shall, to the best of his ability, give an opinion that is objective and reliable. Before giving out opinion about the valuable materials, I shall be done and complete research well in those materials. Research shall be done by holding paramount about safety, health and welfare of the public but not just simply giving an opinion that is subjective.

As a registered and qualified engineer, I shall not give away my opinion based on my personal knowledge only. I shall analyses data that exist objectively according to market needs, advantages and benefits that can be obtained, safety and nature of the valuable materials, nature of wastage and treatment etc. The most important issues that I need to include in my proposal are: factors, causes, method to prevent or solve and even some precaution that need to be focused.

I shall prepare well by considering problems that may be asked by employer to support my proposal. For example, due to the issue of treatment of the wastage, I shall conclude and sort out several methods instead of sealing myself with common method used. Wastage of these materials that produced can be treated through filtration and classification, while wastage can be classified harm or harmless. Treatment of wastage can be classified as biodegradable, recyclable or reusable where each of them is having specific method to be treated.

For the advantages and benefits that can be obtained from these valuable materials, I shall collect data sources from specific field that are relevant to these materials. For examples, uses and future of these valuable materials cannot be predicted or estimated subjectively, researches about their uses and future must be done and discovered in a professional point of view. I shall have these objective and reliable data and results to improve my proposal.

Profits and welfare that can be obtained through these materials should also be considered. The value of the materials can be estimated and calculated based on their rarity, functions, future, reliability and etc. The higher the value of the materials will lead to higher profit that can be earned while higher welfare can be given to the public. Besides considering the value of the materials, I shall also consider the complexity and cost of process and develop of the materials. For examples, some materials may have higher profit but they may also have higher cost to be processed and developed. In this case, the value of profit margin may be reduced due to high complexity and cost.

Lastly, as a registered and qualified engineer, I shall always be giving opinion that is objective and reliable based on my professional capacity and best ability. Research should be done while data and results should be prepared well to support an engineer’s professional opinions.

5.0 Undertake assignments follow the qualified by education & experience.

According to section (8) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall not make any public statement in his capacity as a professional engineer without ensuring that his qualification to make such a statement and any association he may have with any party which may benefit from his statement are made known to the person or persons to whom it is directed. A Professional Engineer shall not affix his signature to any plan or document dealing with subject matter in which he lacks competence, nor to any plan or document prepared under his direction and control. A Professional Engineer shall not accept assignment and assume responsibility for coordination or an entire project and sign and stamp (P.E stamp) the engineering documents for the entire project unless each technical segment of the project is signed and stamped personally by the qualified engineer who has prepared the respective segment of the project.

From the statement above, engineer should receive offer services, advise or undertake professional assignments only in areas of their competence by virtue of training and experience. This includes exercising care and communicating clearly in accepting or interpreting assignments and in setting expected outcomes. It also includes the responsibility to obtain the services of a specialist or an expert if required or, if the technique is uncertain, to proceed only with fullest disclosure of the experimental nature of the activity to all parties involved. Hence this requirement is more than simply duty to a standard of care it also involves honesty with one’s client or employer and oneself.

In this age of rapidly expanding technologies and new concepts and theories, engineer cannot be expected to be conversant with every new development of knowledge. Thus, engineer have increased personal responsibility to employ the services of others who have expertise to supplement their own capabilities. This responsibility is most important when adopting new processes like computer software to ensure the programs are site specific to the member’s project

Engineer are registered either as Professional Engineers (P.Eng.) or Professional Geoscientists (P.Geo.) and sometimes both. The professions are distinct and registration in one does not give a member the right to practise in the other.

6.0 Preparing formal and professional report to employer

According to the section (11) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall inform his employer in writing of any conflict between his personal interest and faithful service to his employer. After considering the paramount of safety, health and welfare of the public that are listed, I shall prepare and tidy up my research’s results in a formal report. Evidences are needed to strengthen my particular information while results needed to support my reports. All the relevant and pertinent information should be included in my reports such as the results obtained for the nature of the valuable materials, results obtained about the wastage of the valuable materials whether harmful or harmless to the public and the estimated or expected welfare that can be developed to the public.

An experiment data and results about Nature of Valuable Materials should be included in my professional report to prove and support my particular information. For example, acidic or basic, positive or negative chemical reaction, biodegradable etc. Table can be used to improve my reports’ details and for a more clearly understanding.

Some examples of results:

Table 2: Dangerous and Reaction of Materials

Type Of Materials	Nature Of Materials	Danger	Chemical Reaction
A	Acidic	No	Positive
B	Acidic	No	Positive
C	Basic	No	Negative

Table 3: Nature of Materials

Materials	Biodegradable	Environmentally Friendly	Recyclable	Reusable
A	Yes	Yes	No	No
B	No	Yes	No	Yes
C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

The nature of the wastage of the valuable materials should also be considered and listed in my professional report. Testing and experimental results should be included in reports since the nature of the wastage of these materials always be the concern of the public, whether these wastages will or will not affect the health of the public. The wastage that should be concerned not just the remains after the materials have been processed, but also should concern any chemical that are released through the processes especially chemical reaction processes. Materials and chemicals that are used should be listed clearly in my report to ensure every important information are included.

Some examples of results:

Table 4: Chemical Reactions

Materials	Chemicals	Process	Gas Produced	Remains
A	Acid	Heating	Gas A	XA
B	Basic	Heating	Gas B	XB
C	Basic	Heating	Gas C	XC

Table 5: Nature of wastage

Gas	Harmless	Filter	Remains	Harmless	Filter
A	Harmless	Needed	XA	Harmful	Needed
B	Harmless	Needed	XB	Harmful	Needed
C	Harmful	Needed	XC	Harmless	Needed

After considering the safety and health of the public, I shall next concern about the benefits or advantages of exploring these valuable materials. The value of these materials not just calculated or estimated depends on their rarity, but also should consider their uses and how further it can be developed and created into new uses from time to time. Besides, the durable of these materials also should be concerned to become a requirement to estimate the value of them.

First and for more, research must be done to classification of these materials according to their rarity. The matter that cannot be denied is the rarer of the materials; the higher the value of the material and thus more profit can be earned through this type of materials. Next, the durable of these materials also should be considered as a condition to estimate their value. The more durable materials will have higher value than others.

However, the most important condition that should be concerned to identify the value of these materials is the uses and future of these materials. A material that has hundreds of uses in many fields will surely more valuable than other materials. Future of the materials means how further that these materials can be developed and created into new uses or improve technologies nowadays.

Lastly, the profit that can be obtained by the company and advantages that can be delivered for welfare of the public is calculated and estimated.

7.0 Disclosing all potential interest and paramount our employer interest

According to section (12) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall not improperly disclose any information concerning the business of his employer or of any past employer. Every registered engineer or registered member while acting in his professional capacity shall disclose in writing to his client of the fact if he is a director or member of or substantial shareholder in or agent for any contracting or manufacturing company or film or business or has any financial interest in any such company or film or business, with which he deals on behalf of his client.

As a registered engineer shall disclose all known or potential conflicts of interest that could influence or appear to influence his judgement or the quality of his services. Therefore, we must paramount the interests of our employer. To develop the development of the company or colleagues, the information and success gained during our assignment with our employer are very important. If the information is not very useful to us but to others, we can disclose the information to employer and let them make a decision for better interest. We also cannot disclose any information to other parties because this is not our responsibility with without permission of our employer. We cannot simply make a decision for our employer because this is not a professional engineer should do. Besides that, we cannot disclose any kind of information to our friends and we should ask permission from our employer before we give these information to our friends. As a conclusion for above statement, this prevents an engineer to take some unethical decision or action because of potential conflicts of interest, which means some self-vested interest personally or at corporate level, for one own gain.

Besides that, a registered engineer shall not solicit or accept financial or other valuable consideration, directly or indirectly, from outside agents in connection with the work for which he is responsible. If we do so, we are dishonoring the profession, and can be considered taking or asking for bribe if caught red-handed, and also will have an impact on our decision making.

8.0 Conducting ourselves honorably, responsibly, ethically and lawfully

According to the section (7) and section (11) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member whose professional advice is not accepted shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the person overruling or neglecting his advice is aware of any danger which the member believes may result from overruling or neglect in section (7) and A member shall inform his employer in writing of any conflict between his personal interest and faithful service to his employer in section (11). Therefore, as a registered engineer shall not falsity his qualification or permit misrepresentation of his associates qualification in or for the subject matter of prior assignment. Brochures or other presentations incident to the solicitation of employment shall not misrepresent pertinent facts concerning employers, employee, associates, joint ventures, or past accomplishments. This points to the fact that an engineer should not lie or exaggerate about his accomplishment to get a job, assignment etc. If we do so, they are being dishonest and in long run spoiling the reputation of the profession.

From the statement above, we noted that the words “pertinent facts” are those facts that have a clear and decisive relevance to a matter at hand. Another way to characterize pertinent facts is as those that are “relevant and highly significant.”. We determined whether the Engineer in fact misrepresented “pertinent facts” and whether it was the intent and purpose of Engineer to “enhance the firm’s qualifications and work.”. The Board noted that it is not unusual for an engineering firm that seeks to promote itself for business reasons to include in such a brochure a statement of the firm’s experience, its history, and its qualifications, as well as the names and qualifications of the members of the firm. We said that the names of the firm’s members are often quite significant to the client selecting the firm. The client may be familiar with an individual member of the firm as represented in the brochure. We concluded that the inclusion of the name of Engineer in the firm’s brochure constituted a misrepresentation of “pertinent facts.”.

Besides that, a registered engineer shall check with due diligence the accuracy of facts and data before he signs or endorses any statement or claim. We shall not sign on such document unless, where necessary, qualifications on errors and inaccuracies have been made. This makes it important for engineers to check accuracy of facts and data before we sign or endorses any statement or claims, as it’s will become our responsibility once we have signed it. It’s engineer’s duty to check with due diligence before signing or endorsing any statement or claim.

9.0 Do not directly or indirectly receive any royalty, gratuity or commission, except permitted by employer

According to section (13) in IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall not accept remuneration in connection with professional services rendered to his employer other than from his employer or with his employer’s consent; nor shall he receive directly or indirectly any royalty, gratuity or commission on any article or process used in or for the purposes of the work in respect of which he is employed unless or until such royalty, gratuity or commission has been authorised in writing by his employer. As a registered member or engineer I cannot personally approve the use of valuable material to other party unless authorized by my employer. Since once I have been tied with the company and working under the Board of Engineers Malaysia, we as Registered Engineer shall act for each employer or clients as faithful agents or trustee.

Although the valuable material can bring a lot of profit or commission, but it still not the material needed by employer. If I sell the valuable material to other party and earn some commission, royalty or gratuity directly or indirectly from that material, it will obey the regulation that me as a member of IEM. I shall discuss with employer, try to convince him about not wasting the material found. Besides, we can sell the information to other party to explore it since we have no interest to explore it.

Meanwhile, the commission from the material sold still can allow us to use it for covering the cost to explore material indirectly. This not only can prevent employer reject my suggestion to sell the valuable material to other party, still can help employer to reduce his stress on material exploitation cost, the valuable material can be sold in very high price, or let other party to bit for it up to certain high prices. If approved by employer, it also can help myself to earn extra bonus with my hardworking and brilliant planning.

Last but not least, I can prepare more precise details about the valuable material for my employer to have a look on what is the advantages and profit of release to other party. Collecting more accurate and interesting data of valuable material and hope that it can change the employer’s decision on that valuable material. Valuable material needed to be properly exploit and use in correct path to benefit all the public, especially the development of company.

Lastly, information selling from the valuable material can not only profit to company but also to the public to get better life in future.

CONCLUSION

Engineers are advised to register for Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and Board of Engineers Malaysia (BEM) for the purposes of enact and execute Engineers Act based on the regulation and guide all practicing engineers with code of professional conduct. Engineers shall always refer to the Code of Professional Conduct to ensure safety, prevent exploitation of the client, and preserve the integrity of the profession.

As members of this profession, engineers are expected to exhibit the highest standards of honesty and integrity. There are several issues that has been discussed such as issues in the global and national interests, interest of industry and profession. Cases of conflict of interest should be restricted to very well defined circumstance, engineers must try to avoid or eliminate these types of conflicts.

According to IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct [2], a member shall hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public; shall contribute to sustainable development to avoid waste of natural resources, damage of the environment, and wasteful damage or destruction of the products of human skill and industry; shall take all reasonable steps to maintain and develop his professional competence by attention to new developments in science and engineering, also deepen their knowledge in their technical fields to stay up to date with the latest developments; shall called upon to give an opinion in his professional capacity, to the best of his ability, give an opinion that is objective and reliable; shall not make any public statement in his capacity as a professional engineer without ensuring that his qualification to make such a statement; shall inform his employer in writing of any conflict between his personal interest and faithful service to his employer; shall not improperly disclose any information concerning the business of his employer or of any past employer; shall conduct himself honorably, responsibly, ethically and lawfully; shall not directly or indirectly receive any royalty, gratuity or commission, except permitted by employer.

To conclude, by further research and discussion regarding Institution of Engineering Malaysia (IEM), we have gained more understanding precisely more on the Regulations on Professional Conduct before entering Professional Interview. It allows us to understand more about the Code of Profession Conduct by demonstrating in having sufficient thoughts about the role of engineer in the Society via Professional Conduct. It also enables us to write in clear and concise manner that is intelligible to laymen.

REFERENCES

[1] “Conflict of Interest | International Federation of Consulting Engineers.” [Online]. Available: http://fidic.org/node/752. [Accessed: 17-Apr-2017].

[2] P. Paper, O. N. Issues, R. To, and E. Summary, “The Institution of Engineers, Malaysia,” no. 8, pp. 13–14, 2005.

[3] Board of Engineers Malaysia, “Guidelines for Code of Professional Conduct,” Guidel. Code Prof. Conduct, no. 0, pp. 4–7, 2005.

[4] N. A. of Engineering, The Engineer of 2020. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2004.

[5] Ir. Dr. Mohd Khairuddin Md Arshad, “1.0 EUT440_1st,” 2017.

[6] Ir. Dr. Mohd Khairuddin Md Arshad, “2.0 EUT440_1st_Introduction,” 2017.

[7] Ir. Dr. Mohd Khairuddin Md Arshad, “3.0 EUT440_2nd_Engineering Ethics,” 2017.

[8] Ir. Dr. Mohd Khairuddin Md Arshad, “7.0 Introduction to IEM & BEM,” 2017.

[9] Board of Engineers Malaysia, “Registration of Engineers Act 1967,” vol. 1967, pp. 1–30, 2007.

[10] Ir. Dr. Mohd Khairuddin Md Arshad, “8.0 EUT440_3rdCon_BEM_Route to Prof Engineer,” 2017.

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