The ASCE Committee of Global Principles for Professional Conduct

In 2004, ASCE President-elect Bill Henry formulated the Task Committee on Global Principles for Professional Conduct (GPPC) to address corruption in the global engineering/construction industry, which has been assessed as a hundreds-of-billion-dollar plague on the industry and victims of it—the poverty stricken people of countries worldwide. The committee was staffed with ASCE volunteers from three continents and included engineers as well as attorneys. From the outset, the committee aimed to support the activities of others and to engage the engineering societies around the world whose membership was individual engineers. Specific actions included:Work in each of these areas is described below.

In 2006, the task committee became a permanent ASCE committee (GPPC) under the umbrella of ASCE’s Committee on Professional Practice.

The October 2004 ASCE annual conference in Baltimore was the first to have a full-day session devoted to anticorruption topics. The program included leaders from design firms, constructors, lenders, professional societies, and interested nongovernmental organizations. Key topics included a global overview of corruption in the engineering/construction industry, case studies of corruption and its effects on people, and current anticorruption practices and enforcement. At the October 2005 annual conference in Los Angeles, the Engineer’s Charter was showcased. In the program we also heard sage advice from corporate leaders: be sure that what professional societies were asking of their members did not conflict with requirements firms legitimately have for their employees.

At the 2006 annual conference in Chicago, anticorruption was part of the international program. ASCE was hosting the Executive Council of the World Federation of Engineering Organizations (WFEO), and GPPC along with the Anticorruption Task Group of WFEO sponsored the anticorruption program.

The 2007 annual conference was in Orlando, Florida, where GPPC’s anticorruption program was a part of the preconference events regarding ASCE international activities. Using the theme “Current Global Anticorruption Activities,” GPPC convened and chaired a panel of distinguished international engineers from the Middle East and a representative of the world banking community. Attendance numbers and audience participation demonstrated considerable interest in the presentations.

At our most recent (2008) annual conference in Pittsburgh, GPPC premiered the drama Ethicana, the DVD that is the centerpiece of the anticorruption education and training program we envisioned. The program was developed by an independent global group of professionals, the Anticorruption Education and Training Team (ACET). The GPPC committee has made anticorruption activities an integral part of the ASCE annual conference.

ASCE must have a policy in place in order to speak publicly on a topic. There was no policy that specifically addressed the society’s anticorruption stance—zero tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption. In 2005, the original task committee developed a policy, reviewed it with the appropriate committees (e.g., International Activities and Professional Practice) and put it forward to the Policy Review Committee and the Board of Direction. Policy statement 510, “Combating Corruption,” was approved in 2005, and reviewed and again approved in 2008. Like all ASCE policies, it will be reviewed and updated every three years.

Also in 2005, the task committee began a unique process to enlist engineering societies and their members in the United States and around the world, to join the battle against corruption. The vehicle was named the Engineer’s Charter. To be effective in this global effort, we had to be sure that the program was carried out as a global engineering and construction industry program, not as an ASCE or American program. We began by contacting the 70 engineering societies around the world with whom ASCE has Agreements of Cooperation, and 30 other professional societies in the United States. Each was asked to share their Code of Ethics and their anticorruption programs with the committee. From that information, we created the first draft of the charter, and sent it to all the societies we had contacted for their review and comments. After receiving comments, we revised the draft Engineer’s Charter, and again sent it out for review and comment. Upon receipt of these comments, we finalized the Engineer’s Charter and published it. ASCE President Bill Henry was the first signatory. Currently, there are over 200 signatories from more than 40 countries. A copy of the Engineer’s Charter can be found on the ASCE Web site (www.asce.org). In early 2006, Engineering News-Record named Bill Henry one of their 2005 Top 25 Newsmakers for initiating the Engineer’s Charter.

Once the ASCE policy Combating Corruption and the Engineer’s Charter were in place, the task committee turned its attention to strengthening ASCE’s Code of Ethics in dealing with corruption. The existing Canon 6 of the Code stated: “Engineers shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the honor, integrity, and dignity of the engineering profession.” The guideline to Canon 6 noted that “Engineers shall not…knowingly engage in business or professional practices of a fraudulent, dishonest, or unethical nature.” The committee felt that stronger, more complete language was needed. We began by identifying the ASCE committees that would be affected by changes to Canon 6 (the Committee on Professional Practice and the Committee on Professional Conduct), and began working with them to develop wording that included zero-tolerance for bribery, fraud, and corruption. After several drafts were reviewed and modified by the three committees, they all unanimously approved the changes to the Code and forwarded it to the ASCE Board of Direction for approval. Following the procedures for changes to the Code, the Board approved them on July 23, 2006.

An ongoing activity of the task committee and its successor, GPPC, has been to make anticorruption a topic that all engineers discuss openly and intelligently. To this end, committee members have spoken to engineering groups throughout the world in more than 40 U.S. cities, and in 12 foreign countries on 5 continents. In several cases, these committee members have been invited to be keynote speakers at conferences. We are getting engineers to speak about anticorruption needs and activities.

One additional action deserves mentioning, and is covered in detail in another article. That action deals with education about the cost of corruption—in lives and in currency. From the outset, the committee focused on three principles:

The GPPC committee determined the need for a new anticorruption training program. In keeping with our idea that the anticorruption program should be “unbranded” and be an industry initiative, GPPC recruited an independent group of professionals from around the world to implement the program. The article on the Anticorruption Education and Training Team gives details on this important activity.

Most recently, the GPPC committee has begun to investigate if we can quantify corruption more accurately. We believe that, with all the activities underway, we need to be able to measure success. If all the industry actions are not reducing corruption, we need to change what we’re doing. Measuring success is a key to determining the usefulness of our programs.

In conclusion, since its founding as a task committee in 2004, GPPC has accomplished a number of vital tasks. We will continue to monitor the industry situation, and create new programs to deal with emerging issues. As civil engineers we must hold paramount the safety, health, and welfare of the public. Fighting corruption in the global engineering and construction industry is a key part of protecting the public.