Ethics

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The key takeaways are that engineers play a vital role in society and must uphold high standards of ethics, integrity, and professional conduct as outlined in the Malaysian Code of Conduct for Engineers.

The guidelines of the Malaysian Code of Conduct for Engineers are to hold paramount public safety, health and welfare, only accept assignments for which they are qualified, issue public statements objectively and truthfully, act as a faithful agent to employers/clients, and conduct themselves honorably and ethically.

Some regulations mentioned include upholding the dignity and reputation of the profession, having full regard for the public interest, discharging duties faithfully to employers, and restrictions on payments, contracts, and professional partnerships.

KNS 4732 Ethics in Civil Engineering

Faculty of Engineering
University Malaysia Sarawak

Part 1

Discuss the Malaysian Code of Conduct for Engineers in Malaysia with respect to
how engineers can uphold the standard of professionalism in the country.

Engineers play a very vital role on the quality of life and the development of the
nation for all people as the outputs produced by them interest the members of society at
large. Thus, it is one of the important and learned professions as the engineers and as
professionals is expected to exhibit and manifest clearly the highest standard of honesty
and integrity. In other words, they need to perform their duties in as conscientious a
manner as possible in sustaining the society as well as the environment. Accordingly,
services and duties provided by engineers require honesty, fairness, equity, impartially and
must be dedicated to the protection of the public health, safety and welfare. By obtaining
the highest level of engineering level is meaningless without upholding the standard of
professionalism and the practices of ethics and morale in the profession as an engineer as
professional ethics is one of the most important concerns in the current world. As an
engineer, the individual should be able to avoid misconducts such as conflicts of interests
and negligence.

However, there are some related products which expose the engineers with the
possibility of bribery and unethical practices and behaviour. For an example, a big amount
of money incurred while dealing with the procurement of engineering. Failure on this
engineering ethics leads to many legal consequences despite the failure in the engineering
products alone. In our own country, there are various types of cases related to the unethical
engineering practices. One of the famous examples is the tragedy of the collapse of a tower
block in the Highland Towers development in Ampang, Selangor which is located just
outside of the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur leading to loss of life and the loss of use
of the blocks that remained standing. This failure leads to bad and negative perceptions by
the members of the public that the engineers are less honest, less trustworthy and more
materialistic thus become prone to bribery. In this case, engineers have the most
responsibilities and duties to secure the safety, health and welfare of the public in the
performance of their professional career as an engineer.

47480 & 45728


Faculty of Engineering
KNS 4732 Ethics in Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University Malaysia Sarawak

In order to maintain and uphold the standard of the professionalism of engineers in


the country, Malaysian Code of Conduct of Engineers in Malaysia needs to be followed
and performed with adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct. Code of
professional conduct is very important as it is a set of internally enforced rules or
regulations that members of engineers must follow. The main objective of this code of
conduct is to ensure public safety, preserve integrity of an engineer and prevent
exploitation of the client. However, it may not have the same status as a law. Some of the
conducts made are: every registered engineer shall at all times uphold the dignity, high
standing and reputation of this profession (Regulation 23: Conduct of Registered
Engineer), a registered engineer in his responsibility to his employer, client or the
profession shall have full regard to the public interest (Regulation 24: Responsibility to the
Employer, Client or Profession), a registered engineer shall discharge his duties to his
employer or client as the case may be with complete fidelity and except with permission of
his employer, a registered engineer shall not accept any remuneration for services rendered
other than from his employer (Regulation 25: Discharge of Duties). There are more terms
and regulations from the Code of Professional Conduct that didn’t mention above which is

 Regulation 26: Reputation etc. of a registered engineer not to be injured.


 Regulation 27: Canvassing and advertising prohibited.
 Regulation 28: Not to practising with any person whose registration has
been cancelled.
 Regulation 29: Restrictions on making payments or placing contracts.
 Regulation 30: Restrictions on entering professional partnership (deleted in
2003).
 Regulation 31: Not to intervene or to take over the work of another.
 Regulation 32: Restrictions on being a director, member or shareholder of
contracting and manufacturing company, etc.
 Regulation 33: Disclosure of interest.

The guidelines of the Malaysian Code of Conducts are as follows:

1. Hold paramount the safety, health and welfare of the public.

47480 & 45728


Faculty of Engineering
KNS 4732 Ethics in Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University Malaysia Sarawak

2. Undertake assignments only if he is qualified by education and experience in


the specific technical fields in which he is involved.
3. Issue public statements only an objective and truthful manners.
4. Act for each employer or clients as faithful agent or trustee.
5. Conduct himself honourably, responsibly, ethically and lawfully so as to
enhance the honour, reputation and usefulness of the profession.

An engineer, as a professional, plays an important and integral role in improving the


development and the socio-economy of a nation. Thus, to tackle and overcome those
unethical practices such as accepting gifts, hospitality, bribes and also inducement,
engineers should have a high level of ethical behaviour in improving the professionalism
as an engineer and ultimately developing the nations towards a better country in the future.

47480 & 45728


Faculty of Engineering
KNS 4732 Ethics in Civil Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
University Malaysia Sarawak

Part 2

In view of globalisation, discuss whether engineers in Malaysia can meet and


overcome the challenges and issues brought upon by globalisation.

References

1. Board of Engineers Malaysia, 2004, Guidelines for Code of Professional Conduct,


1-4.
2. Board of Engineers Malaysia, 2007, Registration of Engineers Act 1967
(Incorporating amendments up to 2007), Act 138, Laws of Malaysia.
3. Board of Engineers Malaysia, 2003, Registration of Engineers Regulations 1990
(Incorporating amendments up to 2003).
4. Abdullah K., 2014/2015, Professional Practice and Code of Conduct for
Engineers, Board of Engineers Malaysia.
5. Leong C. T., Leong W. S., 2014, Certificate of Completion and Compliance, Board
of Engineers Malaysia.
6. Kumar P., Leong W. S., 2014, The Professional Competency Examinations, Board
of Engineers Malaysia.

47480 & 45728


Faculty of Engineering

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