Accepting a Complimentary Seminar Registration

CE 480

Terry, an engineer, is invited, along with other engineers in the same geographical area, to a one-day complimentary educational seminar sponsored by the Marketwise Pipe Manufacturing Company. The seminar is designed to educate engineers on current technological advances in the selection and use of pipe in construction. The seminar is a part of a larger effort by the Marketwise Company to become better known in the engineering community. Marketwise will provide all refreshments, including a buffet luncheon during the seminar and a cocktail reception immediately following. Terry accepts the invitation and agrees to attend the seminar.

Questions:

1. Is Terry's acceptance a conflict of interest?

2. Is Terry taking a bribe in accepting?

3. Will his acceptance create a conflict of interest later if Terry needs to purchase pipes?

4. How would you evaluate the behavior of the Marketwise Company?

5. Is there additional information you feel you need in order to assess the situation?

Definitions

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

A person has a conflict of interest when the person is in a position of trust which requires her to exercise judgment on behalf of others (people, institutions, etc.) and also has interests or obligations of the sort that might interfere with the exercise of her judgment, and which the person is morally required to either avoid or openly acknowledge. (The lesser requirement of open acknowledgment is usually adopted when it seems to burdensome to require the person in a position of trust to divest herself of the interest that conflicts with her position of responsibility. For example, some journals require that authors disclose any substantive financial interests that might have biased their research assessment. Requiring investigators to divest themselves of investments they may have made on the basis of their scientific judgment would be too burdensome, and might even suppress publication.)

Dictionary definitions frequently apply the term only to conflicts between a person's private interests and those of a public office the person holds, and by extension with that person's professional obligations and responsibilities. However, there can also be conflicts of interest in which private interests do not enter. For example, the American Bar Association specifies as part of a general rule on conflict of interest that "A lawyer shall not represent a client if the representation of that client may be materially limited by the lawyer's responsibilities to another client or to a third party, or by the lawyer's own interests, unless: 1)the lawyer reasonably believes the representation will not be adversely affected, and 2)the client consents after consultation. When representation of multiple clients in a single matter is undertakem, the consultation shall include explanation of the implications of the common representation and the advantages and risks involved."ABA, 1989

There is no similar rule requiring engineers or engineering firms to avoid, say, building manufacturing facilities for, or supplying parts to, two companies that directly compete in the same market, although the engineering firm might need to be especially careful to avoid disclosing the proprietary information of one company to the other. This example illustrates the point that one needs to look carefully at the nature of a professional's or a public official's obligations and responsibilities in order to know when conflicting interests become a conflict of interest, that is, when a situation that requires discretion to handle the actual or potential conflict fairly is one that he is morally required to avoid altogether, or at least to disclose to all parties.

A policy requiring financial disclosure, that is, disclosure of financial interests that might conflict with judgment as a researcher or as a public official, is very commonly called a "conflict of interest policy,"although such financial conflict of interest is only one specific type.

BRIBE

Something that is given or offered to a person or an organization in a position of trust to induce that agent to behave in a way that is inconsistent with that trust. As C. E. Harris points out, it is important that bribery be distinguished from capitulating to extortion (that is, capitulating to a demand under coercion or intimidation) since it may be ethically justified to pay extorition in some circumstances, even though it would be wrong to offer a bribe. Usually bribes are paid in order to obtain something to which one does not have a right, such as a special advantage in awarding a contract. In contrast, extortion is paid to secure something one has a right to anyhow, such as protection from arson or the return of equipment one has legally brought into another country but which is alleged to have been "lost" going through customs.