Answers to B paper – 2013

Q1: code of ethics clause 3

3.1 – engineer shall neither pay nor offer directly or indirectly any inducements to others

How the code of ethics violated: -

when there is a rewarding for professional involvement which is being taken place and it is organized by engineering committees or others. If the engineer tries to gain advantage over selection for particular category on the basis of paying any inducement to chairperson of the committee, it is lead to violation of code of ethics.

When getting others’ recommendation for assignments for a particular project or any engineering matter. If the engineer considers that it could be gained the reputation by involving any particular project, then he/she tries to offer inducement to politician or any other who can select for that project.

When paying any person for providing information which is under confidential of other professional work, information gain by such method can be used to compete with others.

When using political influences in favor of getting over the hierarchy of an institution, committee or any society

What steps to be taken to avoid:-

Circulate general notice on the public so as to provide information of such kind of violations in society observed.

Systematic approached on rewarding system in such a way that IESL recommendation is made as compulsory for evaluating any rewarding which is organized by other organization.

Tighten law and order in relation to violation of such code and increase time duration of suspension of engineering practice.

3.2 engineers shall uphold the principle of adequate and appropriate remuneration for professional engineering staff in keeping with their qualification and market place.

How the code of ethics violated ;

sometimes, this would be appeared on both by the employer and employee. when the engineer who is representative of the client will decide a selection of an engineer through interview process for particular assignment and, remuneration will be negotiated knowing that the interviewee has the qualification and experience required for the work but undermine it and then negotiated to lower package.

On the other hand, an engineer who is willing to enter an employment of a particular project will accept a lower package considering that there would be an advantage of being selected among the other.

What steps to be taken to avoid;

Setting up remuneration packages depending on the job description and employees’ qualifications and experiences can be implemented in societies or committee level. Then it can be addressed when there is a requirement but it’s quite a difficult task since there is a lot of expertise involvements required.

3.3 engineers shall not attempt to supplant any other engineer employed, consulting who has been appointed without his consent

How the code of ethics violated;

in an infrastructure development project, Project management team on the developer side will decide to hold further design and consultancy services from a design and consultancy firm due to the fact that their previous designs on the same project had been overdesigned but it wasn’t proved by a proper professional review of the designs. Since developer has the upper hand on deciding what consultancy firm should be take part in the project. Accused consultancy engineer could be removed without giving equal opportunities explain their views.

What steps to be taken to avoid;

If some engineer conducts improper engineering practices in a particular technical field, and anyone feels that his/her designs are not according to the standards then a complain on such misconduct to proper authorities like IESL and taking into notice among the professional team of the company on such cases. Decisions should be taken with referring to personal opinions and it should be team decision.

3.4 engineer shall not misinterpret and falsify their own or other engineers qualifications, experience and prior responsibilities.

How the code of ethics violated;

When preparing company profiles in relation to the submission of a project proposal, if engineer who is an employee of contracting company prepares and shown strength of the project management team by providing falsify qualifications and experience so that it would be a competitive advantage for the company in which that engineer working. This will ultimately lead to failure of the entire project since professional involvement in their competence area would not be properly addressed

What steps to be taken to avoid;

Providing falsify information to the others cannot be strictly monitored, if found such misconduct, let the public know about such organization misbehavior of the company in order to protect from making a failure of the projet

Q2 list 5 core competences

i) Knowledge and understanding engineering principlesii) Practical application of engineering knowledgeiii) Leadership and managementiv) Communication and interpersonal skillsv) Professional conduct

Which aspects of engineer’s development are covered by these competences?

Engineer should be always updated with standards, new technologies, and environmental impact measures and its regulations, and emerging technologies, in order to maintain theoretical approach any kind of engineering practices.

This is going to be the main core competence that an engineer should attain, since everything will be based on the knowledge. Without knowing the subject there is no longer existence for an engineer. Therefore, engineers should gain the knowledge as much as possible and need keep doing that until the end of the carrier.

The second core competence is focus on application of the knowledge that the engineer has, when an engineer is going to practice engineering matter in area of his/her competence, practical approach of solving engineering problem is very important. This is another aspect of engineer’s development. Once the knowledge is fulfilled, better usage of it to be practiced. Generally this aspect of development should be developed by using analytic skills, problem identification and solving skills. One issue is that development of this aspect cannot be gained only thorough reading; it is rather an intuitional approach. Therefore, engineer should be aware of the other engineers’ skills on the same subject, what are the previously used techniques and leant from the activity and a failure.

Charted engineers cannot continue with having fulfilled above two competences. They have to be present in the public and the public will follow and recognize and come after in any matter or an issue for which they would think that there is a solution. To accomplish that engineers require having leadership and management this will come under 3rd core competence.

Communications skills of an engineer play a vital role in the society, since the public safety, health and welfare are always maintained in any engineering practice therefore, engineer should be capable of explaining and convincing in the context of resolving problems in the society. Therefore, development of communication and interpersonal skills are very important.

Professional conduct of an engineer should be in high standard in liaison with stipulated code of ethics by IESL and this will make the society more safely environment, as long as engineers are working in proper professional conduct. All the benefits are going to be in favor of the community. Therefore, this aspect of engineer’s development has the equal potential as others in core areas of competences.

Q3) Proposal to the board of directors/ Management to implement a sustainable strategy to improve the efficiency of the resource use of your organization.

Draft a policy statement and making a plan, policy statement should be covered 3R concept– reduce, reuse, recycle

Reduce – find ways to use less of what you already use

Reuse – choose new suppliers committed to sustainability and reusing of materials

Recycle – improve waste disposal management system so that recycling option can be adapted.

Policy should include way of setting goals and tracking the activities

Implementation of reward system so that employees will commit to work on sustainable development.

Pollution prevention,

Q4) discuss the role that engineer can play in “changing lifestyles” of sri lanka society in marching towards a green economy.

Green economy strategies

Green jobs

Opposite – brown/polluting/inefficient

Ecological footprint 50% in 2050

UNEP defines “one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities”

Green economy is based on 6 main sectors

i) Renewable energyii) Green buildingiii) Clean transportationiv) Water managementv) Waste managementvi) Land management

Sustainable tourism/ eco labeling/ recycling collection network/ managing water losses/ efficient use of resources/ low carbon economy/ education for sustainable development/ social inclusion and poverty reduction/ accelerating system innovation

Q5) Lump sum contract

Measure and pay contract

Schedule of rates contract

Cost reimbursement contract

BOO – built own operate

BOT – Build own transfer

Turnkey

Design and built

Q7) Formulate and discuss at least five reasons to describe why engineers and technical professionals need leadership skills

All engineers need management competencies to get work done.

Leadership is entirely interpersonal

Leadership is about influencing and directing others for a positive outcome.

a) Low interaction with public compared to other professionals such as doctors, teachers and so on.

b) Almost all engineering works are team work. In order to keep the consistency of the team work activities, leadership is required.

c) Keep the community live and work along with the global trends such as environmental aspects, application of technology, use of material,

d) Convincing the people impotency of efficient use of planet’s resources and changing lifestyles towards the green economy. Organizational efficiency cannot be achieved without having good leaders.

e) Public should be fully knowledgeable about policy changes and addition in every sectors related with lifestyle operations

Role of an engineer and a manager are twofold, but there are a little overlap when concerns about the work that they are doing, obviously engineers are not oriented with maximizing profits with developing ideas, but they always put attention to make more efficient, reliable and economical systems.

Therefore, maximizing the profit is one of the main target areas for managers. However maximizing the economical productivity is the other part of main target for engineers. Therefore, above two aspects cannot simply be used to describe role of managers and engineers.

Q8) draft policy framework on national water policy with special reference to ground water. ????

Ministry of land and land development has sought public opinion

103 rivers in SL 12000 tanks

SL having adequate water resources per capita faces seasonal variations and periodic water crisis

Rapid urbanization caused high level of water pollution

Q9) Sri lanka’s future prosperity depends exclusively on the development of a vibrant services sector – critically discuss,

Tourism, banking, finance, IT, education, heatlth

Other countries like india has shown its economic growth in relation to the service sector development

Service led jobs will reduce the tension on unemployment issues

Services are becoming tradable with higher rate of return than earlier because demand is always at high

Some of the services such as tourism and education will provide the opportunity for foreign currency income.