When Is A Political Contribution Influence Buying?

A plan is offered to determine when political contributions by an engineer is influence buying, and to develop a set of guidelines to be used in analyzing situations wherein this issue could be a problem. A survey of periodic publications was conducted. The most productive sources were Civil Engineering and Engineering News Record. This search revealed that there are indeed many instances of unethical political contributions in the United States. The publicity given these cases has created such concern that it may lead to a restructuring of the method by which contracts for engineering services are now granted. The need established by the existing circumstances warrants the renewed interest of the profession and the judicial system in their attempt to clean up the award process.