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

- Exaggerated professional capacities

- Manipulation of quantities

- 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

• 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

• 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