Enhancing Ethics and the Competitive Environment by Accounting for Conflict of Interest in Project Procurement

Conflicts of interest, whether actual, potential, or simply a situation having the appearance thereof, occur often in the global facilities and infrastructure design and construction industry, of which engineers are an important and integral part. The procurement of engineering services by governments and agencies can be the first checkpoint for preserving ethical conduct, and the enhanced ethics from this process can then propagate down the value chain in the subsequent delivery of design services, the procurement of construction services, equipment, materials, and supplies needed for construction, and the provision of ancillary services. This paper proposes to account for a range of properly disclosed conflicts of interest, using a scoring framework in the selection process that includes the benefits of accepting a certain degree or level of conflict of interest and weighing it, in a transparent process, against the adverse risks and consequences of a conflict. A two-part metric is proposed: the first part quantifies the adverse risks of conflict of interest (ARCOI) with a range of negative to zero values, and the second quantifies the benefits of accepting the conflict of interest (BACOI). Adding these two values provides a total conflict of interest (TCOI) score, which can then be properly combined and weighted with the other components common in procurement scoring frameworks, which have points for firm qualifications, staff qualifications, technical approach, and price, in order to arrive at a transparent selection decision. The paper provides the rationale and also practical commentary for implementation of the proposed procedures.