The document discusses an engineering ethics case involving an engineer named Ahmad who requests and pays a manufacturer to prepare contract design drawings for smart energy management devices, as Ahmad's firm lacks expertise in this area. While it is ethical for Ahmad to pay the manufacturer, it is unethical for him to sign and seal the drawings, as neither he nor his firm have the required qualifications or expertise in the design of these devices based on the Malaysian Board of Engineers code of conduct.
The document discusses an engineering ethics case involving an engineer named Ahmad who requests and pays a manufacturer to prepare contract design drawings for smart energy management devices, as Ahmad's firm lacks expertise in this area. While it is ethical for Ahmad to pay the manufacturer, it is unethical for him to sign and seal the drawings, as neither he nor his firm have the required qualifications or expertise in the design of these devices based on the Malaysian Board of Engineers code of conduct.
The document discusses an engineering ethics case involving an engineer named Ahmad who requests and pays a manufacturer to prepare contract design drawings for smart energy management devices, as Ahmad's firm lacks expertise in this area. While it is ethical for Ahmad to pay the manufacturer, it is unethical for him to sign and seal the drawings, as neither he nor his firm have the required qualifications or expertise in the design of these devices based on the Malaysian Board of Engineers code of conduct.
The document discusses an engineering ethics case involving an engineer named Ahmad who requests and pays a manufacturer to prepare contract design drawings for smart energy management devices, as Ahmad's firm lacks expertise in this area. While it is ethical for Ahmad to pay the manufacturer, it is unethical for him to sign and seal the drawings, as neither he nor his firm have the required qualifications or expertise in the design of these devices based on the Malaysian Board of Engineers code of conduct.
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Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Faculty of Engineering
KNR3102 ENGINEERING ETHICS
Instructor:
Dr Shafrida Sahrani
ASSIGNMENT 1(c)
Prepared by:
No. Name Matric No. PKEE Group
1. Nur Hazwani binti Sadong 65074 1
Question: Ahmad, a senior engineer in an engineering firm that specializing in the production of power transformers. He is requested by manufacturer S to design a power transformer for a new substation in Selangor. Included as part of the power transformer is the smart energy management devices to assist in controlling voltage. Ahmad’s firm does not possess the expertise to design such devices and therefore requests and pays manufacturer B to prepare contract design drawings for the particular smart energy management devices to be included in Ahmad's contract document bidding package. Ahmad reviews the contract drawings and signs and seals those drawings as part of the overall design drawings of the power transformer. Discuss the ethical responsibilities for Ahmad to pay manufacturer B and sign and seal the drawings.
Answer:
The situation above shows that Ahmad paid manufacturer B to prepare contract design drawings for the smart energy management devices to be included in his contract document bidding package. Assuming Ahmad is a Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate, according to BEM Code of Conduct of Registered Person, 1.3.3, “A registered Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate shall not solicit or accept any consideration, financial or otherwise, directly or indirectly, from outside agents in connection with the work for which he is responsible.”. In Ahmad’s case, he did not receive any benefit nor gift when he paid the design drawing from manufacturer B. He also did not receive the design drawing for free instead he fully paid the manufacturer for the service. Thus, Ahmad did not violate the code of conduct even though a part of the design drawing was from a third party and it is not wrong for him to request and pay a manufacturer to prepare contract drawings which would be included as part of the Ahmad's contract documents.
On the other hand, it is stated that Ahmad nor the firm possess the expertise to design a smart energy management device. As mentioned in BEM Code of Conduct of Registered Person, 1.1.4, that “A registered Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate shall undertake assignments only if he is qualified by education and experience in the specific technical fields of that assignment in which he is to be involved”. This mean that one can only accept a task if they are clearly knowledgeable and expert in the area that the person is involved. In this case, neither Ahmad nor his firm has the expertise to develop design drawing for the smart energy management device thus they are not qualified to accept the assignment and should decline the request from manufacturer S. However, Ahmad accepted the assignment even though he knows neither him nor the firm has qualified by education and experience in design drawing the desired device. Therefore, Ahmad has violated the Code of Conduct in this situation.
Based on the BEM Code of Conduct of Registered Person, 1.1.6, “A registered
Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate shall not accept assignment and assume responsibility for coordination of an entire project and sign and stamp (Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate stamp) the engineering documents for the entire project unless the engineering documents for each technical segment of the project is signed and stamped personally by the qualified person who is involved in the respective segment of the project”. The code is violated when technical segments of the project document are signed by non- qualified engineers or by engineers who did not prepare those segments. In Ahmad’s case, neither him nor the firm are expert in the certain area of the project, thus he should not be handling the sign and seal the design drawing. Besides that, it is unethical for Ahmad to sign and sealed the design drawing of the project document since it is clear that he did not prepare those segments. The project document should have been sign and sealed by manufacturer B since they are the one who prepared the segments. From this situation , it is clear that Ahmad has violated the Code of Conduct.
Moreover, it is noted that Ahmad does not possess the competence to review the contracts drawings and sign and seal those drawing. According to BEM Code of Conduct of Registered Person, 1.1.5, “A registered Professional Engineer with Practising Certificate shall approve and sign only those engineering documents that he has prepared or has been prepared under his direction and control”. The direction and control here mean that one party must exercises supervision over another party. To execute such supervision, it is important that the supervising party must be knowledgeable about areas being supervised. However, in this case, it clearly shows that Ahmad nor his firm has the expertise to design the devices. Thus, it would be impossible for him nor the firm to direct or control the development of those design drawings. In this context, Ahmad and his firm cannot be said knowledgeable and therefore, it is clearly inappropriate for him or any other member of his firm to sign and seal drawings for the design of the smart energy management device.
In conclusion, it is ethical for Ahmad to pay manufacturer B to prepare contract
design drawings for the particular smart energy management devices to be included in his contract document bidding package. On the other hand, it is unethical for Ahmad to sign and seal the drawings.
