LEGAL APPROACH TO PREVENT MISCONDUCT IN CODE OF ETHICS OF ENGINEERS FOR CIVIL ENGINEERS WHO ACT AS CONSTRUCTION CONTRACT ADMINISTRATOR : ANALYSIS OF FIDIC CONSTRUCTION (FIDIC RED BOOK) 2017

Abstract

          This research presents an analytical study of legal measures for the prevention of behavior that violates professional ethics in engineering of civil engineers who are construction supervisors.  The study employs considerations from construction contracts of the 2017 FIDIC Red Book along with significant concepts regarding fundamentals of public services and the assignment of public services related to construction supervision to professional engineering organizations by government organizations guided by the principles of proportionality between administrative acts given to professional engineering organizations, including the control of the use of administrative acts of professional engineering organizations through the method of internal appeals of those professional organizations, and the inspection of the legality of administrative act by the administrative court.                                 The study finds that the problems of behavior in violation of professional ethics in engineering of civil engineers who are construction supervisors according to the implications of the regulations of the Council of Engineers concerning professional ethics in engineering and the violation of such ethics leading to the damage of the dignity of the profession, B.E. 2559 (2016) derive from the three following reasons:                                                     1) The inappropriate manner in the appointment of engineers licensed for professional practice in Civil Engineering of the contractor to supervise construction                2) The appointment of engineers licensed for professional practice in Civil Engineering by a government agency employer to supervise construction that is beyond their professional ability.                           3) Unclear guidelines for the operations by the construction supervisors who are engineers licensed for professional practice in Civil Engineering so as to conform with the right practices and academic principles.           As such, Legal procedures to prevent problems resulting from behavior that violates professional ethics in engineering of those civil engineers who are construction supervisors may be established by the Council of Engineers in its capacity to represent professional engineers in Thailand and oversee the behavior and operations of professional engineers. This is to ensure that they conform with the standards and professional ethics stipulated in article 7 (7) and (4) of the B.E. 2542 (1999) Engineer Act. There should be coordination with the ministries involved in amendments to the law on civil engineers’ supervision of construction for its completion. This shall be used as legal guidelines to prevent problems of violation of the said professional ethics in engineering, i.e.,                   1) To determine the legal guideline whereby a supervisor of construction which must follow laws related to professional engineering must be personnel under the jurisdiction of the party that is executing the construction or a subcontractor, whether or not there is remuneration involved.                         2) To determine the legal guideline whereby a supervisor must possess the credentials as proposed by the designer and that normally the credentials should at least be of the diploma level. However, in cases where the construction must follow the professional engineering laws, the supervisor appointed by a government agency must be an engineer who is licensed for professional engineering that corresponds with the category, type and size of that construction.                                           3) To determine the legal guideline whereby in cases of variations in the construction, the civil engineer overseeing that construction must comply with the following three responsibilities which are (1) The task of inspecting the details in the drawing and the specifications in the contract prepared by the client to be used as guidelines for the construction; (2) The task related to changes in construction costs that might be an increase or decrease in the work, which will be calculated along with the construction index determined in the contract, e.g., Factor F; (3) The task of determining the time of completion of work in accordance with the contract which is calculated as float activity in the construction and critical activity of the construction that involves changes.