Competitive Bidding On Foreign Work

The increased opportunity for overseas work has found American engineers dealing with foreign clients whose practices are governed by rules and laws at variance with the U.S. Code of Ethics. In recognition of these conditions ASCE adopted in 1963 a Codicil to the Code of Ethics which has come to be known as the When in Rome clause to enable ASCE members to obtain work outside the Untied States. The United Nations Development Program uses price bidding; other international agencies such as AID, World Bank, and Inter-American Bank generally subscribed to non-price competition methods of engineer selection. In general, the present climate regarding competitive bidding seems to be improving, which raises the question of the relevancy of the ASCE Codicil on competitive bidding to present day conditions. It is recommended that the language of the Codicil be reexamined, but that the intent remains unchallenged until all international agencies follow a consistent practice and remove price information from proposal requests.