Civil Engineering January-February 2022 | Vol 30 No 1

16 January/February 2022 Civil Engineering E th i cs C orruption and unethical prac- tices are worldwide phe- nomena in the civil engi- neering, construction and public works sectors. For example, the estimated annual expenditure worldwide on construction in 2018 was USD$11.4 trillion. Transparency International conservatively estimated 10% (approximately USD$1.14 trillion or R17.1 trillion) of this global infrastructure investment was lost through bribery, fraud, and corruption, diverting funds from projects that provide water, pollution control, electricity, roads, housing, and other basic human needs. To put this in per- spective, the amount lost is more than three times South Africa’s entire GDP of USD$320 billion. A UK survey revealed that a large number of the built environment professionals surveyed had witnessed or experienced some degree of unethical conduct, in the form of unfair conduct, negligence, conflict of interest, collusive tendering, fraud, confidentiality and propriety breach, bribery, or violation of environmental ethics at some point. South African built environment profes- sionals are likely to be experiencing these same types of activities and more. Given how pervasive ethical and anti-corruption behaviour is, how can public and private sector organisations best encourage their employees to behave ethically? WHAT CAN ORGANISATIONS DO? Dr Harold Kerzner – known as the grand- father of project management – notes in his magnum opus , Project Management – a Systems Approach , that, “Organisations that promote morality and ethics usually have an easier time developing a coopera- tive culture… [and] moral and ethical behaviour by engineering practitioners can improve organisation culture” and vice-versa. There are several approaches to embedding ethical behaviour into an organisation’s value system and culture, including staff training, organisational policies, incentives, and penalties to encourage certain behaviours. Developing an ethical culture requires the following: Q Q The top leaders must set the right tone Q Q The organisation must offer formal training in ethics and standards of conduct Q Q The organisation must provide formal mechanisms, both internally and externally to the organisational struc- ture, for reporting wrongdoing. SAICE’s Growing Forward Together strategy is comprised of eleven different activities grouped into seven areas. The second of these activities is Ethics and Professionalism, which focuses on the promotion of professionalism and integrity in the civil engineering industry. To increase awareness of the issue, Civil Engineering will be featuring short articles on relevant topics around the subject from time to time. Do you have a mission statement ? Gregory Skeen Pr Eng SAICE Growing Forward Ethics Champion Chair: SAICE Ethics Committee ethics@saice.org.za Assist-a-University Grow-a-Graduate Grow-an-Expert 5–6 Grow SAICE 7 1 Getting to know your SAICE Ethics, Diversity and Inclusivity 2 Knowledge Trailblazer The Voice – Advocacy 3 4 SAICE STAR Success Through Academic Readiness Programme SAICE SOS Support Our Students