A word with engineers (2)
Conflict of interests is the root of immorality and corruption
The second part
Abbas Akhundi – October 2017
My idea was and is very simple. The owner must have the right to choose the supervisor. While observing the professional responsibility, including the commitment to the principles and regulations of architecture and urban planning, as well as the national building regulations, the supervisor must guarantee the rights of the owner within the framework of the regulations. The organization should accept the responsibility of coordinating the affairs of engineers and dealing with disciplinary violations, not to interfere in the private rights of engineers and not to be a partner in the interests caused by their disturbance. And the municipality must assume the responsibility of controlling the building as determined by the law. Currently, the municipality either has the ability to directly control the buildings or outsources this responsibility using the services of engineers under the title of municipal inspector. The inspection must not be the building inspector appointed by the owner.
The conflict of interests of the organizations of the construction engineering system of the provinces as representatives of those who perform duties and suppliers of engineering services and municipalities and other organizations responsible for urban facilities does not end here. Some engineers and officials of public and government organizations gradually became interested in being present at the management level of provincial construction engineering system organizations and officially sitting on both sides of the table and fueling the conflict of other interests. In such a situation, I should have entered as the policy maker of the sector and the protector of public rights. Of course, entry was very expensive. Because I was directly challenging the interests of individuals, that too within the government. But, I took all the risks and took the first step. I prepared the amendment of the executive regulation of the law by adding the article related to engineering ethics and brought it to the approval of the cabinet. After that, I compiled the code of ethical professional behavior in construction engineering based on the law enforcement regulations and sent it to the central council for opinion. And at the same time, I exposed it to the view and opinion of the general engineers, and finally I communicated it on 9/4/95 to No. 15288/100/02. Previously, I had issued the theory of Article 123 regarding the prohibition of accepting conflicting interests to the boards of directors of provincial construction system organizations in the seventh term of these organizations’ elections under No. 29876/100/02 on 2/6/94. It immediately became clear that only in Tehran there are candidates in a specific list equivalent to all the seats of the board of directors of the provincial construction engineering system organization from among the managers and employees of Tehran municipality and other organizations. The same story was repeated in many cities and mostly in big cities. With the issued circular, all these people were excluded from the competition. It is clear that they did not pray for me. According to a report, hundreds of complaints were brought to the Court of Administrative Justice to cancel the directive.
At the head of supporting the plaintiffs was the former head of the Central Council, who at that time was the head of the Construction Commission of the Islamic Council, which implied a conflict of other interests. He announced that I will lay down my life in the Court of Administrative Justice to cancel this directive. Of course, this was his work for God’s pleasure and to improve the provision of services to the people! Despite all the efforts and expenses that were paid to the lawyers, this directive was not revoked and became the first example of the conflict of interest in surgery. Subsequently, the issue of not accepting conflicting interests was extended to all engineers working in municipalities, ministries related to construction, and organizations responsible for urban facilities, which was welcomed by the Engineers Association, and the concept of conflict of interest entered the engineering literature in Iran.
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@AbbasAkhoundi
This post is written by Soheilsoleymanzade