Bribery may be defined as something of value given with the intent of influencing the judgment or conduct of a person in a position of trust. Bribery is one of the few crimes mentioned explicitly in almost all engineering Codes of Ethics or Standards of Conduct, perhaps because so many engineers are involved in the awarding of construction contracts—a widespread activity that by its nature is especially susceptible to covert influence arrangements. The purpose of this course is to widen the professional engineer’s understanding of engineering ethics, through consideration of seven case studies of bribery. The studies are actual cases that have been successfully prosecuted by agencies of the Federal government. The ethical aspects of the bribery cases are developed by identifying the particular Standards of Conduct for engineers that were violated by the actions of the convicted engineers. This course is intended for professional engineers interested in increasing their understanding of the applicability and relevance of engineering ethics. This course is based on the document, “Engineering Ethics—Case Studies in Bribery,” written by Mark Rossow, August 1, 2023.

Learning Objectives

• Course participants will know the definition of bribery.
• Course participants will know the motivations for typical cases of bribery.
• Course participants will learn how to relate a type of crime to a specific standard of conduct.
• Course participants will understand common types of bribery.
• Course participants will understand that both paying and soliciting a bribe are violations of bribery laws
• Course participants will recognize state regulatory laws for professional engineers as a source of engineering ethics principles.