Engineering Ethics ReflectiEthical cases often come about in the regular practice of the engineering field. The National Society of Professional Engineers is a body mandated to look into ethical practice for engineers and has set up a quasi-judicial body which looks into ethics cases. This paper reviews the ethics case 15-1, where an engineer had conflict of interest between two employers.
In this case, Engineer X wanted to move from the employment of state Y in the engineering department to the employment of a company C, which the state had been conducting business with. Engineer X was interested in taking a position within the company C immediately after resigning from state employment. He requested permission to resign from the state’s employment and was denied permission on the basis that an engineer could only seek employment an year after resignation. The engineer thus went ahead and resigned and worked with the company C as an independent contractor (NSPE Board of Ethical Review, 2016).
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Following decisions in other cases, the Board found that there was unethical practice as the engineer P got into business with the Company C as an independent contractor as opposed to an executive employee. This practice, although not illegal, was an unethical act that would be used to circumvent the law. In deciding the case, the court looked at the possibility that the former government employee would have colliding interests when he worked with the company C on government projects. Furthermore, their quality on such projects could be subject to public scrutiny and the disgrace of the engineering profession should apparent mistakes come to light. I concur with this view as the engineer P was in pursuit of purely self-interests when he obtained the job. This was done by circumventing state law and common practice in the engineering field.
References
NSPE Board of Ethical Review. (2016). Case No. 15-1: Conflict of Interest – Former Government Official – Independent Contractor for Firm. Retrieved from NSPE: https://www.nspe.org/sites/default/files/BER15-1%20APPROVED.pdf
