Mr X. is a project engineer for a project contracted to Y Company owned by Mr Z. Mr Z tells Mr X that he is ordering the latest model of an electronic gadget for his company staff and he can get a set for Mr X at the company discounted price. Mr X agrees and pays on delivery. Did Mr X. breach the BEM or IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct?

The regulation of professional conduct is accomplished in many ways such as ensuring that members of the profession are of good character, providing guidance and educating members to members as to what constitutes appropriate professional behaviour, and by having robust complaints and discipline processes that deal with situations where a member may not have met the standards of conduct. All of these require clear guidance as to what is appropriate professional behaviour.

For this case, Mr X actually had breached the BEM or IEM Regulations on Professional Conduct by accepting the electronic gadget that been offered by Mr Z, owner of Company Y with discounted price. Eventhough Mr X is now working as a Project Engineer at Mr Z’s company, he is actually has broken the law of ethics as in BEM and IEM. It has been clearly stated in BEM Code of Professional Conduct, A Registered Engineer should 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. Based on this case, Mr X has acknowledged about the discounted price for the electronic gadget and still accepting this offer.

Besides, 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 be received 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. Once you have been tied with a construction company and working under the Board of Engineers Malaysia, you as the Registered Engineer shall act for each employer or clients as faithful agents or trustee.

There are a lot of cases just like Mr X happens to be. For example, bribery that may include the corruption of a public official as well as commercial bribery, which refers to the corruptionof a private individual to gain a commercial or business advantage. One of the essential elements of official bribery is giving or receiving. Just like Mr X who at the very first place knowing about that electronic gadget with discounted price and still receiving it from Mr Z. Proof of corrupt influence often involves demonstration that the person receiving the bribe favoured the bribe-payer in some improper or unusual way, such as providing preferential treatment, bending or breaking the rules, taking extraordinary steps to assist the bribe-payer, or allowing the bribe-payer to defraud the agency or company.

Every member of any BEM or IEM shall be informed that as he or she be engaged or employed in any advisory of consultant capacity, shall observe and be bounded by them following Code of Professional Conduct and Professional Conduct Regulations made under them. He shall not accept any trade commission, discounts, allowances or indirect profit in connection with the work upon which he is engaged. But seems like Mr X is unquestionably guilty for accepting that offer from Mr Z. This kind of attitude will give a bad impression towards this industry. This will lead to another kind of attitude such as a contractor who is trying to cut cost by using cheap item without any hesitation and such thing will cause danger at the end of the day. A structure might get cracked or even collapsed. In other hand, it will effect the user which is us, the human being.

As a conclusion, professional associations should be more aware of this problems. Giving more exposure to the members of BEM an IEM about each of the Code of Conduct.