Potential conflict of interest?

[tr4driver]

Greetings.

I am a P.E. and own a small civil consulting business. One of my clients is the city I where I'm located, and I provide engineering design services for various infrastructure project on a hourly rate basis as needed for the city. Recently, I have been asked by the city engineer (who is also a P.E.) to assist in the review of private development plans submitted to the city for review and approval and prepared by other local engineers and surveyors. Since I also perform services for private developers and these other engineers are my direct competitors in some instances, is it a conflict of interest for me to accept these additional duties?

 

[IRstuff]

Seems to me, that's only if you're competing with them on this particular development. If you have no dog in this hunt, then there shouldn't be an issue. However, you might consider whether there are any personal relationships that might change if you find, or don't find, any problems.

The only issue might be proprietary information that you might glean from this and use in another competition. However, if such information exists, then you'd be asked to either sign a proprietary rights agreement, or be asked to not review certain portions of the proposal.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[MiketheEngineer]

Seems a bit tricky - but could be done. If you are working for the city - ask the city lawyer his opinion and get it in writing!!

 

[zelgar]

Short Answer: YES

In general, you can't work on both sides of the fence (e.g., design and review) at the same time.

Here's are some examples where there's either a clear case of Conflict of Interest or a potential for one:
1. Doing work for private developer that will be submitted to the city for review. This includes any work that's going to the city, even stuff not going to the office you'll be doing the work.


2. Reviewing work of direct competitor if you're still doing outside work (e.g., If you and Consultant X do other work that is not involved with the city work; they could claim that you're unfairly treating their work that you're reviewing (e.g., asking for unnecessary information, delaying approval)


Working with government typically restricts a lot of work and engineer can perform. A lot of governments have clear ethics rules to prevent Conflict of Interest by pretty much restricting you from doing work outside of the government.

 

[rbulsara]

What IRStuff said. This is no different than peer review.

Rafiq Bulsara

http://www.srengineersct.com

 

[cvg]

this is done all the time and as long as you are not designing or developing the property that you are reviewing, you should be fine. If you suspect conflict of interest on any particular project than just don't do it.

there should not be any conflict for reviewing submittals from your competition, this is also done all the time. However, you should not treat them unfairly but in a professional manner or it will definitely come back to bite you.

 

[Ron]

Yes. As cvg noted, it's done all the time. The only issue is that you can't review any project on which you provided services for someone else (pretty obvious)....otherwise, fine.

 

[tr4driver]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I am absolutely not reviewing any private development plans that I have prepared, and I will not be actually making any final approval decisions for others' work. I'm simply being asked to check calculations and go through checklists to confirm that all required information and design data is included with the submittals. At the end of the day, the city engineer will be responsible for making the recommendation for approval or not (based in part on my report I'm sure).

I spent a couple of hours today discussing the situation with the city engineer, and in the end, we agreed to a written policy that would clearly define my role and what I would and would not be responsible for. I feel much more comfortable about the situation at this point.

 

[IRstuff]

You should also make sure that the city engineer gets clear understanding of anything proprietary in the drawings. There may need to be a "firewall" to ensure that you, as a potential future competitor, do not see something that may give you inside information later on.

TTFN

FAQ731-376
Chinese prisoner wins Nobel Peace Prize

 

[tr4driver]

IRstuff: Anything submitted to the city for review becomes public record and is therefore viewable by anyone through an FOI request, so that's not really an issue.

 

[beej67]

^^this.

The idea of a design being "proprietary" is much more applicable to Aerospace than Civil.

I have a friend who flat out took a job with the county, but still does civil design for another PE's firm on the side. What he did, after discussing it with the county, was told his PE friend he could still do side work for him, but not in that same county.

Hydrology, Drainage Analysis, Flood Studies, and Complex Stormwater Litigation for Atlanta and the South East -

http://www.campbellcivil.com

 

[patprimmer]

A city engineer doing private work by contract only for projects for other counties still has ethical issues as the volume of work awarded and the rate of pay received might be seen as tantamount to a bribe.

Regards
Pat
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for site rules

 

[jrearle]

I am a Town Engineer in a small municipality and I also pick up some occassional side work with a former co-worker who went on their own. Primarily to gain experience and get licensed in septic system designs but also some small residential subdivision work (road design, stormwater, etc). I absolutely will not touch any work in the municipality that I am the Town Engineer for, but don't see any conflict doing work in any other surrounding towns or cities.