Ethical Landscape

in Quantity
Surveying
Chandana Jayalath
 Why talk about ethics?

Law is silent or incapable of measuring subjectivity

Continuing collapse of professional image
Preserving integrity of the profession
Securing public trust
Customer satisfaction
Avoiding idiosyncrasies
Regulating professional conduct
Who is a professional?

Attributes of a profession include work

that requires sophisticated skills, the
use of analysis, interpretation and
judgment and to some extent, the exercise
of discretion.
Are you self regulated?

Professional bodies have introduced

their primary objectives as follows;
• Regulate and promote the profession
• Protect clients and consumers
• Maintain the highest educational and
professional standards
• Provide impartial advice, analysis
and guidance.
Nature of Professional Functions;

 Engage with and use of the available robust evidence base

 Reason out and decide within changing, uncertain and
unpredictable situations
 Manage of potentially incomplete and conflicting
information
 Work as part of a wider multi-professional team and not in
isolation
 Cope with the unexpected in addition to the routine
services
 Consider and resolve complex ethical and moral matters
 Work within the defined regulatory framework
 Adhere to a moral, ethical and professional code of
practice
 Demonstrate autonomy in practice
 Maintain an awareness of individual limitations to scope of
practice
 Commit to maintaining and developing professional expertise
 Deliver an effective service that is caring and
compassionate
What are professional ethics?

 Act with integrity

 Always be honest and trustworthy – do not deliberately mislead - whether
by withholding or distorting information
 Be open and transparent. Share the full facts with your clients, making
things as plain and intelligible as possible
 Be accountable for all your actions
 Build your professional reputation on merit and do not compete unfairly
 Know and act within limitations. Be aware of the limits of your own
competence and do not be tempted to work beyond these. Only commit to
what you can deliver.
 Be objective at all times. Give clear and appropriate advice. Never let
sentiments or your own interests to cloud your judgment
 Avoid situations inconsistent with professional obligations
 Establish opinion only on adequate knowledge of the facts
 Always treat others with fairness and respect. Give due credit to
other’s work
 Set a good example
 Have the courage to make a stand
 Foster sustainability
 Engage yourself and support your subordinates in continuing professional
development
 Act with integrity
Never put your own gain above the
welfare of your clients, and respect their
confidentiality at all times.
Always be honest
Be trustworthy in all that you do and
never deliberately mislead, whether by
withholding or distorting information.
 Be open and transparent in every dealing
Share the full facts with your clients,
making things as plain and intelligible as
possible.
Be accountable for all your actions
Never commit to more than you can deliver
Act in good faith
Comply with laws and customs
Know and act within your limitations - be aware of the limits of
your competence and don't be tempted to work beyond these
limits. Limits may be set by education, training and authority
Be objective at all times - give fair, neutral advice, and never let
your own feelings or interests cloud your judgement.
Never discriminate against others - treat others with respect
whatever their gender, race, religion or sex.
Set a good example - both your public and private behaviour
could affect your own reputation and other members'
reputations.
Have the courage to make a stand - be prepared to act if you
suspect malpractice.
Is there an ethics crisis in
the Quantity Surveying
profession?
A client may approach a quantity surveyor to certify a cost
plan of a project which is not commercially realistic. Whilst
one quantity surveyor may refuse on factual grounds, a less
reliable substitute certifies the same for a commission

A QS incorrectly uses of postnomials and falsifies and

misrepresents qualifications and experience.

A QS reviews, for a particular client, the work of another QS

without with such quantity surveyor, having knowledge of
the review and being afforded the opportunity of submitting
comments on the findings of the review.
Accepting a direct or indirect offer, payment, solicitation, bribe or
inducement are altogether unethical. Hospitality received in the course
of a business meeting, and which can be reciprocated, may be
acceptable, but anything where professional opinion or judgement or fair
dealing might be adversely affected is unlikely ethical.

Recruiting a surveyor from a competitor to undermine their effectiveness

is unethical. On the same token, insider trading could place a person at
an advantage over others, particularly with information gained through
previous work place, other than in the necessary course of business.

Quantity surveyors must avoid unauthorized disclosure of confidential

information, such as bid prices. Leakage of trade secrets and the careless
handling of intellectual property may result in prosecution.
In bespoken contracts, there are vast chunks of texts
copied straightaway from standard forms. Even though
on most occasions what the standard form gives with one
hand the amendments take back with the other.

Plagiarism is often seen in that taking credit for the

original work of someone else can pose severe negative
consequences. Although giving credit to someone else is
far more persuasive, plagiarism is passing off another's
work as one's own.
A QS with a pre conceived idea of taking under advantage
picks a group of prospective tenderers that is already
known to result in less competition based on previous
tender results amongst a wildly varying technical capacity.
This is cherry picking.

Suspecting a mistake, a QS declines to disclose the bid

prices, but declares the bid was lower than the owner’s
estimate. The contractor was unable to complete the works
at its bid price because of a critical mistake in bid pricing.
Can the contractor sue for fraudulent exploitation of a
known mistake in a bid.
Preliminary estimating involves intuition, guess work and
thumb rules. In case an estimate prepared by a quantity
surveyor is found to be considerably lower than the bids
received, then a question may arise as to how and where the
pre estimate has gone wrong. Is this professional negligence?

A mistake in billing might mean a knock-on effect on the

cash flow. Often, the quantity surveyor hides under the
‘correction and withholding clause’. Is this a fair play?
A junior quantity surveyor incorrectly over certifies an
interim valuation. What would you do?

A QS uses the employer’s upper hand in deciding rates for

instance comparing rates of other on-going similar contracts
and unilaterally determining rates without any room for
negotiation. This is economic duress.

Head office overheads could also be recovered separately in

payment for variations, variations exceeding 20%, adjustment
of preliminaries, and in the pricing of prolongation costs,
recovery of home office overheads, etc. This is double
dipping
A QS undertakes review of claims of mercantile and logistic
nature. QS must not take risks of losing credibility by
undertaking something beyond his or her capacity in terms
of education, training, expertise and authority.

It is bad faith, more easily recognizable so that a party may

contest when only a bad faith prevails.

All tenderers are entitled to know all the grounds upon

which their bids are to be assessed. Is it ethical to expect
them to do so while material facts are withheld from them?
Negotiations taken place in parallel when one tenderer believes that it is
the only party engaged in those negotiations is not fair dealing. This is
aptly called bid-shopping.

Parties are not permitted to take undue advantage of the other party’s
necessity, indigence, lack of experience, unfamiliarity of the subject
matter, or weak bargaining position. A classic example is when penalty
imposition is unfair.

Unless there is a valid reason to upfront deny, a claim must not be

returned unevaluated.

On the other hand, professionals must compete fairly with other

members, partnerships and corporations by merit, and not on the basis
of fees alone.

A QS undertakes work on behalf of a contractor but another part of the

business is already working for the client on the same project. Is there a
conflict of interest?
If a tender board awards a contract to a company owned by a
relative of the tender board member, it would not be illegal to
award such a contract to the best qualified company, even if
that company were indeed owned by a relative, but the member
of the tender board could not be part of the decision making
process.

Similarly, interviewing prospective staff belonging to the same

employer on the request of another employer on secondment
would also constitute a conflict of interest. What do you do
then?
 Ethics Check List
Is it legal?
Will I be violating any civil law or
institutional policy?
Is it balanced?
Is it fair to all concerned?
Does it promote win/win situations?
How will it make me feel about myself ?
Will I be proud?
A common suggestion is however that once we have
ascertained the facts, we should ask ourselves at least
a couple of basic questions when trying to resolve a
moral issue:

• What benefits and what harms will each course of

action produce, and which alternative will lead to the
best overall consequences?
• What moral rights do the affected parties have, and
which course of action best respects those rights?
• Which course of action treats everyone the same,
except where there is a morally justifiable reason not
to?
• Which course of action advances the common good?
• Which course of action develops moral virtues?
 Bell, Book and Candle Test

1. Listen for the bells warning you of an ethical issue.

2. Check to see if there are any laws, regulations or

rules which restrict your choices.

3. How will your decision look in the light? Could a

reasonable fair-minded person conclude you acted
improperly?

(Josephson Institute, BOI 2008)

A generic model has the following components in
order.

• Step 1: Identify the problem

• Step 2: Identify the potential issues involved
• Step 3: Review relevant ethical guidelines
• Step 4: Know relevant laws and regulations
• Step 5: Obtain Consultation
• Step 6: Consider possible and probable courses
of action
• Step 7: List the consequences of the probable
courses of action
• Step 8: Reflect on the process
• Step 9: Decide on what appears to be the best
course of action
Self-regulation has tremendous benefits– but
with those benefits come costs and
responsibilities.
• • Maintains a register of individual
practitioners
• • Sets educational standards and independent
accreditation systems
• • Requires professional competence
• • Provides codes of conduct, ethics and
practice guides
• • Has in place a complaints mechanism
• • Has in place a fitness to practice
procedure that is accessible to the public
• • Requires registrants to have adequate
professional indemnity insurance
• • Has the capacity to regulate the whole profession
When the situation
needs improvement,
Gandhi offers
guidance: “You must
be the change you
wish to see in the
world.”