Transcript GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS FOR THE BUILT AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS FOR THE
BUILT AND NATURAL
ENVIRONMENT
Ethical Challenges in the Built and
Natural Environment Sector and the
Role of Professionals in Preventing
Corruption
DEFINITIONS FOR OUR PURPOSE
• Professional – Someone who has acquired
advanced education and special training to be
able to practice on a full time basis in his/her
area of specialisation
• Ethic – System of moral principles, rules of
conduct, moral soundness
• Corruption – The abuse of position to achieve
personal gain or for the gain of another
person. In our case it will include bribery.
FORMS OF CORRUPTION
• Corruption at Project conception stage
• Corruption at Tender stage
• Corruption at Project execution stage
• Corruption at Payment stage
• Corruption at Project conception
• Client/Professional generated (may also involve contractor)
• Client generated (may involve professional/and or
contractor)
• Manifestations
• Project is conceived, design is done but project is not
started
• Project is conceived, design is done, project is started but
stalls after a short time
• Pending bills – Idle equipment and labour
• Corruption at Tender stage
• Bid Rigging
Exaggerated price projections
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Exaggerated professional capacities
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Manipulation of quantities
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Under pricing by bidder in order to
win tender
• Manifestations
• Project appears very expensive
• Professional firm appears very capable
• Tenders appear uncompetitive because of wide variations for different
bidders
• Evaluation process appears transparent but in actual fact it is not
• Project cost appears unreasonably low
• Corruption at Project execution stage
• Unjustified variations
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Manifestations
Cost overruns
Poor quality materials – sub standard or defective
Poor quality workmanship
Some materials/goods not supplied in full or not
supplied at all
• Corruption at Payment stage
• Payment system not transparent
• No clear policy on how payments are made
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Manifestations
Payment process extremely bureaucratic
Delayed payments
Selective payment regimes
Delayed completion times
Cost overruns
Pending bills
THE ROLE OF PROFESSIONALS IN
PREVENTING CORRUPTION
• Address matters of ethics
• Provide advisory role
• Engage Government
• Adhere to professional codes of ethics
Address matters of ethics
• Introduce ethical behavioral training in
learning institutions starting from early
primary to university level
• Nurture and develop ethical behavior in other
training institutions
• Nurture and develop ethical behavior in all
other spheres including religious groupings
and communities groupings
Provide advisory role on the following:
• Advise EACC on what loopholes to seal
• Advise clients/government to operate projects within
budgetary allocation to avoid issues of delayed payments, cost
overruns and ultimately pending bills
• Advise government to institute transparent payment policies
and procedures for contractors and service providers
• Payment procedures to be made part and parcel of
performance contracting
• Introduction of a penalty system for professionals and public
servants who cause unjustified cost overruns
• Introduction of independent random projects’ audits
Provide advisory role on the following cont:
• Technical & Financial Proposals- relative weighting; evaluation criteria;
shift more to QBS, rather than QCBS; evaluation of financial proposal
against established budget.
• Fair/Even Distribution of Professional work- among registered
professionals, based on workload, past performance and professional’s
capacity (i.e. “go down the list”). It should be in the best interest of GOK as
the ultimate beneficiary if work is made available to all the players in the
industry, to ensure training of new professionals and development of local
capacity.
• Central Registers of different professionals- Professional Registration
Boards could be mandated to register firms
• GOK Ministries, State Corporations, Private Companies etc to pre-qualify
professionals from these central registers.
• Periodic audit of Registered firms to be instituted to maintain them in the
register.
Engage Government
• There is an urgent need to document data on
corruption involving professionals in the country.
Documented data to be disseminated to all
professionals and government departments for
corrective action. Data to be updated periodically
and corrective action to be monitored and evaluated
on a continuous basis.
• APSEA represents a critical mass nationally on issues
of ethics, integrity and transparency in service
delivery. It ought to engage the government directly
at prime minister level on matters of policy
formulation and governance.
Adhere to professional codes of ethics
• APSEA and EACC can introduce a process of
determining levels of corruption amongst
professionals, contractors and suppliers. This
can be done with advise from Transparency
International
• Award scheme can be introduced to recognise
those found to be corruption free
• A form of punishment to be instituted for
those found to be corrupt
THANK YOU