your minimum tender; we do not require ‘kick backs’ to do our
work, so do not come to thank us.” This will instill confidence in
the contractor to do what is right, and by so doing, develop a
more negative attitude toward corrupt practices in contracting.
The Nigerian Society of Engineers should hold regular
conferences/seminars supported by government on engineering
ethics. The Federal Ministry of Works and Housing should publish “due process rules” as a handbook and make available to
contractors, practicing engineers, architects, and quantity surveyors. These rules should be made part of civil engineering practice
and construction management syllabuses in the universities. By so
doing, all forms of vested interests will be removed from contracting, and project management will take its normal course.
Conclusion
From the findings of this study, the following conclusions are
drawn:
• There are values, disciplinary, and control measures put in
place in every organization to check malpractices, yet unethical practices that merited summary dismissal are sometimes
not so treated for reasons of connections or influences and or
sometimes committed to lesser punishments, hence, encouraging people to engage in unethical practices;
• Military incursion into polities, instability/insincerity in the society, allowing offenders to get away with illgotten wealth and
celebration of riches and awarded of titles are factors that support unethical practices in the engineering industries;
• Greed, acquisition of wealth by all means to enhance public
status, glorification of wealth, delayed salaries or nonpayment
of salaries are some of the economic pressures responsible for
unethical practices in the engineering industries;
• Awarding of a contract single handedly by a chief executive
officer, influencing of award of contract to a choice company
by one or two members of the board for selfish reasons, dictation of direction of decision of board to approve/disapprove
spending single handedly by an individual or chairman, ignoring of excessive prizes on a bid because of interest in sharing
in the contract sum, sharing or awarding contract to members
themselves at inflated prices are some of the committee/
board’s practices that encourage unethical practices in the engineering industry;
• Leaking vital information on pricing to companies, putting forward to awarding committee bids having one’s interests built
in, negotiating one’s own share before the bids are prepared,
ignoring excessive prices quoted in the bids due to interest in
sharing in the contract sum, are some of the practices by some
of the contract administrators, which encourage unethical
practices in the engineering industry;
• Resorting to getting vital information on contract by paying
various sums of money to officials, inflating the prices to accommodate “kick backs” are some of the practices by contractors that encourage unethical practices;
• Including materials or costs not required in the project for
personal benefit, ignoring low quality materials, or overlooking poorly executed work because of certain pacts between
contactor and supervisors, issuance of completion certificate
even when project is yet to be completed, and inflating prices
in the bill of quantities with the hope of benefiting when supervising same project are some of the practices by engineers/
architects/quantity surveyors that encourage unethical
practices; and
• The factors that contributed most to the malpractices in the
engineering industries are economic pressures, followed by societal practices, vested interests of stakeholders in contracts,
and last organizationals practices.