2.

If you were a consulting engineer and were submitting Turnkey tender on behalf on a Turnkey
Contractor, would you consider a conflict of interest between the role of a consulting engineer
and contractor? Enlarge on the ethics of the subject.
A Turnkey contract is an agreement which is a contractor completes a project and then hand it
over in fully operational form to the client. The Turnkey contract at least three components
which are the design of the facility by the contractor, the technology of the component and the
supplies, construction and the erection. The contractor is responsible for both design and
construction of a facility. The contractor must carry out the design of the works and provide the
client with the required operation and maintenance manuals. The contractor also must to obtain
necessary permits and licenses. In Turnkey contract or project, a Consulting Engineer may
provide services with both to the Owner or to the Contractor. Examples of services that can be
provided by the Consulting Engineer to the owner are preliminary investigations, pre-investment
studies and checking designs submitted by the contractor. As for the Contractor, the Consulting
engineer involve in pre-tender investigations, preliminary designs, detail design and technical
and financial submissions.
Consulting Engineer comes from third party. In Turnkey contract, both the Owner and Contractor
cannot be the Consulting Engineer. This is because a Consulting Engineer is another party who
work for the Owner or the Contractor. The conflict of interest will produce when a Contractor
play a role as Consulting Engineer. The Consulting Engineer will provide biased professional
advice to the Owner of the project in order to get benefit for himself. The Consulting Engineer
will act with no integrity. The Consulting Engineer determine the design standards, construction
methods, acceptability of materials, and methods of saving costs, to suit his own interests, not for
the Owner. Some of the work for the project will be done by unauthorized party. This is to make
sure the Contractor who act as the Consulting Engineer get more money from the project. The
Contractor will hire other parties to the work with low wage and provides fake license and
permit.
Being a Consulting Engineer and a Contractor at the same time and in the same project is an
unethical act. Based on engineering code of ethics, a registered Professional Engineer shall
disclose all known or potential conflicts of interest that may influence or appear to influence his
judgement or the quality of his services. A bad judgement by the Consulting Engineer will
affected the whole project. The Consulting Engineer will not advice their owner or clients and
will ask the owner to carry the project even though the project will not be successful. This is
because the Consulting Engineer want to get profit from the project. The Consulting Engineer
also will keep in silence when the project endanger life or property. Engineers shall acknowledge
their errors and shall not distort or alter the facts.
Consultant engineer and contractor have a different job scope. Now we need to take such
situation, a consulting engineer were submitting Turnkey tender on behalf on a Turnkey
Contractor and he consider himself as a consultant and also as the contractor. In this situation,
engineer have a tendency to hide certain of information as long as he got the project. He might
neglect some relevant information in the tender or he might fake some statements and
testimonies. He also might only change the date of the current information even when the
information was 10 years ago. Regardless with the conflict between the consultant engineer and
contractor, it is already been stated by the Code of Conduct of BEM which is code 2.1.6; A
registered Professional Engineer shall be objective and truthful in making professional reports,
statements and testimonies. He shall include all relevant and pertinent information in such
reports, statements, or testimonies, which should bear the date indicating when the information
was current. Thus, it is such an unethical for a professional engineer to become the consultant
and in the same time as the contractor. As a consultant, you must follow all the rules and
regulations. You also must provide all the true information and you need to have a solid
objectives in taking this task. Meanwhile, as the contractor, you should give all the specifications
of the materials or other thing that will use in the project. This way will make an easy work for
the consultant to choose the best contractor and also to avoid any bias issues.

Moreover, there also a code of ethics that must be follow by a professional engineer. Codes 2.2.1
has stated that a registered Professional Engineer shall certify satisfactory completion of a piece
of work only if he has control over the supervision of the construction or installation of that
work, and only if he is satisfied that the construction or installation has fulfilled the requirements
of the engineering design and specifications. There are few cases happen where if the consultant
was also as the contractor, and the power of the approval was in his hand, the engineer tend to
blindfold all the false information and errors. This kind of conflict should be avoid. You cannot
be the consultant engineer as you denying the engineering design. As a professional consultant,
you should follow all the engineering design to avoid any blame in the future. This is when you
need to use your power right. Before you satisfied with installation or construction, you need to
be precise with all measuring and other sector that should be consider. Even when you are the
contractor, you must follow all the specifications to meet the client satisfactions. This is to secure
your job. With all good performance, the client must be seeing you for the next project. By
following the design and specification precisely and accurately, this will give you a good name
and performance.

As the conclusion, it is unethical for a consultant engineer to be a contractor in the same time. It
is more preferable to have a consultant engineer from the third-party. By doing this, this will
avoid many bad consequences to happen. Such as bribe, misuse of authority, bias issues,
monetization issues and more. A professional engineer should not break the Codes of Conduct
which is 1.2.4 A registered Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate having knowledge
of any violation of this Code of Conduct or any law or regulation shall report thereon to
Employer or appropriate professional bodies and, where relevant, also to public authorities and
cooperate with the appropriate professional bodies or the proper authorities in furnishing such
information or assistance as may be required.