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Professional
Work on a Contingent Basis |
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Interpretation
(b) states that engineers shall not request, propose,
or accept professional commissions on a contingent basis
if, under the circumstances, their professional judgments
may be compromised. Work on a contingent basis means an
engineer is engaged in an open-ended project with no fixed
outcome, and the engineer's income derived from this work
depends on the deliverables. The engineer may negotiate
a fixed, dollar-per-hour professional service fee in advance.
Consulting engineers are sometimes contracted to provide
engineering services for projects that are in various
phases of development, and, depending on the project's
feasibility, the engineering services may continue to
be needed. Interpretation (b) advises engineers how to
carry out their duties as faithful agents for their clients
under these circumstances, and it is consistent with Canon
4 Interpretation (i), which states, "When, as a result
of their studies, Engineers believe a project(s) will
not be successful, they shall so advise their employer
or client."
Consider the following situations of a consultant engineer
working on a contingent contract (adapted from http://www.onlineethics.org/cases/nspe/nspe77-12.html):
Mary Smith, P.E., a consulting engineer whose primary
work is industrial product design, is requested by the
XYZ Manufacturing Company to review an amplifier design.
XYZ is under pressure to deliver a final model to a customer
within three months, but has not yet developed an acceptable
product. Smith spends a few days reviewing the XYZ design
and makes several recommendations to improve it. She is
paid her usual per diem fee, as agreed upon earlier. XYZ
asks Smith for further assistance, to make the product
fully acceptable, and proposes to pay her a fee for the
additional service only if the amplifier, as a result
of her assistance, will meet the company's requirements.
During this period XYZ will pay Smith's out-of-pocket
costs, such as travel, lodging and computer time.
Would it be ethical for Smith to enter into a contract
arrangement as described?
It is important to note that XYZ made the offer to Smith;
she did not propose the contingent arrangement as a device
to secure work. It would be ethical for her to accept
the offer, provided that her professional judgment will
not be comprised by the outcomes of each phase of the
project. Smith's judgment should also be guided by Canon
4, Interpretation (i), which states, "When, as a result
of their studies, Engineers believe a project(s) will
not be successful, they shall so advise their employer
or client." |
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