Topic: Engineering Ethics & Professionalism (Code of Conducts)

Code of professional conduct generally means a set of rules related to the

profession behavior, which in this case, the profession mentioned is engineering. This set of
rules is ought to be applied throughout the whole career as an engineer. The intention of the
code of professional conduct is to protect the public interest, the client, and to preserve
integrity of the profession. The code of conduct basically follows the three act, which are
Registration of Engineers Act 1967 (REA), Registration of Engineers Regulations 1990
(RER), and Board of Engineers Malaysia; Circular No. 1/2005. Of these three, RER is the
only one incorporating amendments up to 2015. The three documents are available online.
Basically, REA covers the professions of engineers, inspectors of works, and engineering
technologist. These codes of conducts were regulated by the Board of Engineers Malaysia
(BEM) and Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM). BEM will be responsible to handle the
registration of the three professions, starting from the application, to the assessment
conducted, and everything related to it. The registration with the Board follows the concept of
two-tier registration. The first tier of registration is for the professional engineer, while the
second tier of registration is for the professional engineer with practicing certificate.

A section in REA and two sections in Part III-Registration of Engineers, under the
Inspector of Works, Engineering Technologist & Graduate Engineers, stated that the three
professions shall be registered to the board to perform professional engineering services. It is
introduced then that a person who holds any qualification which is recognized by the Board
shall be entitled on application to be registered as an Inspector of Works for diploma level,
and Engineering Technologist for degree level. The professional Engineers will undergo The
Professional Competency Examination (PCE). In the future, BEM will be developing PCE
for engineering disciplines, other that Civil, Mechanical, and Electrical. It is only then that
these professional engineers be entitled to describe themselves or hold themselves out under
the words Professional Engineer, using the abbreviation Ir. before their names, or the
abbreviation P.Eng after their name.

BEM Circular basically covers what an engineer must and mustnt do. All of the
regulations are related to the jobs responsibility, and work ethics of an engineer. Regulations
25, 26, 27, and 33 discussed about the availability of the engineers to work, canvass, or
advertising their services for other parties, beside their current employers. While the Circular
3/2005 Guidelines, is a guide for the code of professional conduct.

Failure to follow the code of conduct, the punishments are suspension not more than
two (2) years by BEM or more by the court, or penalty up to RM50, 000 by the Board or
more by the court, or jail up to three (3) years by BEM or more by the court, or both penalty
and jail term, and cancellation of registration. Furthermore, all registered engineers must be
familiar with the requirements of REA and its subsequent amendments. Ignorance of the
requirements is no defense in the Court of Law in Malaysia.