Unethical Business Practices in Contracting
Standards start to tighten after incidents of unethical behavior shake engineers and contractors
Ethics are challenged everywhere, it seems. On Oct. 28, a U.S. prosecutor indicted Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff for allegedly lying to a grand jury, which ended a particularly bad week for the Bush administration. But it was also a bad week for other politicians around the U.S.,
whose proven or suspected ethics lapses also made headlines, if not on the front page. While I. Lewis Libby Jr. apparently got into trouble all by himself, others were aided by construction industry executives who engineered or joined in an array of questionable schemes.
On Oct. 27, federal prosecutors indicted former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D), a former state transportation director and industry executives in an alleged contract fraud and bribery scheme. On Oct. 19, a former CEO of a large Baltimore mechanical contractor was named in a 30-count racketeering indictment, along with a once-prominent Maryland state senator (see story, p. 28).
And as the month ended, Connecticut's disgraced former governor, John G. Rowland (R), was back in the news as state officials found themselves in the middle of a dilemma over commissioning a portrait of him. Rowland earlier this year went to federal prison, partly for accepting bribes from contractors in exchange for state work.
Even these stories aren't the end of news on the ethically challenged. The American Underground Construction Association Oct. 26 ordered a review of its Minneapolis headquarters after a probe found that a "substantial part of AUA's funds could not be accounted for," the group said in a statement. AUA President Thomas F. Peyton, a Parsons Brinckerhoff vice president, and its outside attorney declined further comment.
Despite more attention to illegal and unethical actions in the construction industry, individuals still "cross the line" into questionable areas of business practice--whether due to temptation,
Ethics are challenged everywhere, it seems. On Oct. 28, a U.S. prosecutor indicted Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff for allegedly lying to a grand jury, which ended a particularly bad week for the Bush administration. But it was also a bad week for other politicians around the U.S.,
whose proven or suspected ethics lapses also made headlines, if not on the front page. While I. Lewis Libby Jr. apparently got into trouble all by himself, others were aided by construction industry executives who engineered or joined in an array of questionable schemes.
On Oct. 27, federal prosecutors indicted former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman (D), a former state transportation director and industry executives in an alleged contract fraud and bribery scheme. On Oct. 19, a former CEO of a large Baltimore mechanical contractor was named in a 30-count racketeering indictment, along with a once-prominent Maryland state senator (see story, p. 28).
And as the month ended, Connecticut's disgraced former governor, John G. Rowland (R), was back in the news as state officials found themselves in the middle of a dilemma over commissioning a portrait of him. Rowland earlier this year went to federal prison, partly for accepting bribes from contractors in exchange for state work.
Even these stories aren't the end of news on the ethically challenged. The American Underground Construction Association Oct. 26 ordered a review of its Minneapolis headquarters after a probe found that a "substantial part of AUA's funds could not be accounted for," the group said in a statement. AUA President Thomas F. Peyton, a Parsons Brinckerhoff vice president, and its outside attorney declined further comment.
Despite more attention to illegal and unethical actions in the construction industry, individuals still "cross the line" into questionable areas of business practice--whether due to temptation,