John D. Kemper and Billy R. Sanders in Englehardt et al.

(2014) described engineering as the

profession in which application of mathematical and natural sciences knowledge with
judgement to determine ways to utilize the materials and forces economically and
beneficially to mankind. As a professional engineer, he or she has a huge responsibility to
utilize and practice their knowledge and skills in ethically. Schinzinger and Martin (2000) in
Baura (2006) stated that engineering ethics is the study of the moral values, issues, and
decisions involved in engineering practice. An engineer solves problems that have arisen.
Since engineers are involved in so many projects that touch peoples lives, violating the good
principles and practices of engineering ethics may threaten the respect and safety of others.
The main conducts of violation of engineering ethics are conflict of interest, bribery, and
corruption. Therefore, it is important for an engineer, especially a fresh one, to learn ways on
being a responsible professional to the society.

A conflict of interest occurs whenever an employee permits the prospect of direct and
indirect personal gain to influence his or her judgement or actions in the conduct of corporate
business. This situation can happen to every worker. However, the impact of it is heavy to a
professional and authorized worker especially engineer. A conflict of interest involves an
inherent conflict between a particular duty and a particular interest. For example, serving on a
review panel for awarding research grants and at the same time submitting a grant proposal to
that review panel creates an inherent conflict between ones interest in being awarded a grant
and ones responsibility to exercise impartial judgement of proposal submissions. Moreover,
the interests of the client, employer or public that the engineer must protect are restricted to
those that are morally legitimate. An engineer has no professional duty to serve or protect the
interests of an employer or client that can be served or protected only through illegal activity
such as fraud, theft, embezzlement, and murder. On the contrary, the engineer may have a
duty to expose such interests to external authorities. Even though it is best to avoid conflict of
interest, sometimes this cannot be reasonably done. Thus, the professional should reveal the
existence of the conflict rather than wait for the clients or employers to find out about it on
their own so that they can decide whether they are willing to risk the possible corruption of
the professionals judgement that such a conflict of interest might cause. An important part of
any professional service is professional judgement. Allowing this to be corrupted or unduly
influenced by conflicts of interest can lead to another type of misusing the truth and makes
the engineers; judgement unreliable. Therefore, it is best for engineers to use caution
regarding even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
 The acceptance of a gift from a vendor or the offering of a gift to a customer to secure
business has the potential to be perceived as a bribe. According to Englehardt et al. (2014), a
bribe is a payment of money or something of value to another person in exchange for his
giving special consideration that is incompatible with the duties of his office, position, or
role. A bribe also induces one person to give to another person something that he does not
deserve. There is an agreement that the bribe must be in exchange for a certain kind of
conduct. Such agreement is the clear factor in distinguishing bribes from gifts or rewards.
Company policy should be followed in accepting or giving gifts. Some policy may allow the
engineer to accept gifts of nominal value such as pens, mugs or calendars, when such gifts are
infrequent, and customary in a business relationship. Gifts of greater than normal value
should be politely declined and returned to the sender in a timely manner. In some rare
circumstance, to return such a gift would be awkward. Thus, the gift should be handed over
to Human Resources for appropriate disposition. Engineers and members of their immediate
family must not accept or solicit from any vendor or supplier directly or indirectly any gifts
including vacations, cash payments, cash equivalents such as gift certificate or cheque,
services, loans, or discounts. Both giving and receiving bribes are forbidden by professional
engineering codes. There are a few good reasons for this. One of the reasons is if an engineer
takes a bribe, he or she is creating a situation that will most likely corrupt their professional
judgement and tarnish the reputation of the engineering profession. Bribery can also
undermine the efficiency of the market by inducing someone to buy products that are not the
best for the price, as well as give someone an unfair advantage over his or her competitors,
hence violating the standards of justice and fair play. Thus, bribery is something that an
engineer should be avoided.

Corruption can occur in many processes involving engineers, including contract

preparation, design, procurement, supply chain management, project management, project
management, and maintenance. Many corruption cases are related to ethical issues. Bashir et
al. (2015) explained that corruption is a misuse of entrusted power for private gain or
involving an exchange between two parties who influence resource allocation for private
ends. According to them, malfunctioning managerial system is the core of corruption. This
can be seen when the quality issues and failures in construction have not only considered as
technical issues, rather the managerial system is the root cause. Over-centralized power at
higher levels of organization, irrationality of managerial mechanism, and lack of effective
supervision mechanism are the source of numerous problems such as extensive corruption,
wrong policy making, and lack of enforcement of the organization decree.