Bribery in Engineering

There have been many different ethical problems in the engineering world such as people getting paid to turn their head and look the other way, not sticking to the designed plans or bribery. Bribery is one of the biggest ethical issues in the engineering field. When you are a multi country business you are dealing with many different cultures. With the United States there is no briberies aloud with trying to get jobs. In other cultures and countries briberies are able to get a project. This were the issue begins with ethics in engineering. We will look at examples of where this has been brought up and what the final outcome has been.

With globalization and with us engineering firms working with different cultures we see a lot more bribery issues. In the United States companies are not allowed to take bribes due to the code of ethics. The ASCE code of ethic is very clear about engineers are to do when this comes in to taking any compensation from a contractor. Civil Engineers in the United States have to abide by these codes even when outside of the United States. It then comes in to question what is the engineers morals and how they are to live there life.

Some examples of previous bribes that were taken by engineer in the United States and there punishment for what they did will help everyone understand the seriousness of ethics in Civil Engineering. In Los Angeles, California was a suspected case of where a building engineer was signing of on deals that were not making much sense and was believed to have been taking money in the process of these projects.  The issue here begins with why he wasn’t checking the plans before signing them and then taking money for the plans to get through to the building stage.

In another case of bribery we see an engineer who was working for the US Army Corp of engineers received $80,000 dollars for a personal project that was paid for by a contractor. In this case the engineer was found guilty and first had to spend some time in jail and a $50,000 fine. He then after getting out of jail was on a supervised return, which meant he was supervised 3 years after getting out of jail. In cases like this the engineer holds a lot of power. The contractor works for the government but if the engineer wants a bribe a contractor may feel obligated to give the bribe for fear of not getting contracts in the future. As an engineer you need to know that bribes are not ok to take and the penalty for the crime is going to be huge.

In many cases of bribery in engineering around the word is acceptable. The issue comes when you are dealing with the United States. The United States up holds one of the strongest ethics codes in the world. I believe that bribes are not very moral but in other countries where they want to make sure they get paid and rewarded other jobs is important to them. I agree strongly with bidding jobs and the best bid wins, instead of the biggest bribe wins. A lot of bribery comes when engineers in the United States go to other countries and have o deal with cultures who openly accept bribery. In any case it comes down to are you going to follow the rules of the ASCE and uphold a strong moral values?

Here are the links:
 http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/tag/u-s-army-corps-of-engineers/
http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/article_4061d952-760f-11e2-968f-001a4bcf6878.html
http://www.asce.org/leadership-and-management/ethics/code-of-ethics/

Western North Dakota

In the last few years western North Dakota has been a hot bed for work in the oil industry. The last few years there have been development in fracking to first go deeper and second to become more efficient at fracking for oil. There have been many cases in this where spills are becoming normal and these spills are causing issues. This can have long lasting effects on the land that is being effected. The total of the spill has totaled 1,000 since the 2011. This has not just included oil but includes the water that replaces the oil when the oil comes up from the ground and oil liquids.

State of North Dakota does have agencies that inspect that these spills that are covered.be when seeing the issues sometimes there is an issue with clean up. This land that has had oil spills if not cleaned can cause issues with the feed for the cattle or make the land not farmable. Companies in western North Dakota need to realize these effects to clean up the land as quick as then can. Civil engineers, especially environmental engineers, have the responsibility to keep these spills minimal and make sure that the cleaning up process is done right.

With all the oil traffic in the Williston area the state is starting to see a rise in how much money is needed to spend on the roads. The roads are a key to the industries western North Dakota oil patches. In McKenzie County in western North Dakota required 200 million dollars to fix the roads due to all the truck traffic. When fixing the roads out there is hard because you can build a road one year but the next the road might be in rough shape. It is hard for the Department of Transportation to keep ahead of the traffic in the oil patch.

In one special case of salt water effecting wild life in Western North Dakota happened Charbonneau creek. What happened was a salt water line had ruptured and leaked one million gallons of this water into the creek. The creek was effect 15 miles away from the spill. Wild life was mostly destroyed by the salt water. Having to take a look at what was effected by the spill the engineers have to take a look to find the best solution. This doesn’t help the farmers who relied on their animals who used the creek as a water hole. This is an issue because it can hurt the environment and the owners of the land of the effected will have to find new ways to accommodate their animals.

With the oil fields there have been many issues that have risen that need to be addressed. The regulations in which the state of North Dakota has to have to deal with the oil spills is necessary. The way in which these spills are handled effect normal people who were living there as farmers. Another issue with the oil fields are the roads. The problem is starting to get to be a big issue because of all the truck traffic. It is hard to keep ahead of all the traffic to keep the roads good to travel on. These are a couple of the issue that need to be addressed in western North Dakota.

Links:

 http://www.propublica.org/article/the-other-fracking-north-dakotas-oil-boom-brings-damage-along-with-prosperi