Ethics Flashcards
Can you explain how you act with integrity?
- Being trustworthy
- Being open and transparent in the way that I work
- Respecting confidential information
- Not taking advantage
- Not allowing bias, conflicts of interest or the undue influence of others to override my decisions
- Not offering or accepting gifts or services which might suggest an improper obligation
Why must you act within your professional capabilities/competence?
- To ensure I do not advise my clients incorrectly
- To avoid a complaint or claim of negligence
Can you explain how you take responsibility?
- Be accountable for all my actions
- Always act with skill, care and diligence
- Ensure an appropriate complaint handling procedure is in place in the event somebody makes a complaint about me
- If I think something is not right, I am prepared to respectfully challenge it and raise the matter with my colleagues
How do you promote a high standard of service when executing your professional appointments?
- I always ensure my client, or others to whom I have a professional responsibility, receive the best possible advice and support
- Always acting and advising within my scope of competence
- Being transparent about fees and any other costs or payments such as referral fees or commissions
- Communicating with my client in a way that will allow them to make informed decisions
Can you explain how you promote trust in the profession?
- Understanding how my actions will affect others and the environment
- Fulfilling my professional obligations
- Acting in a trustworthy manner in both my professional and private life
Can you clarify what an individual should do to maintain a high ethical standard in their profession?
- Keep their own actions under review, inside and outside of work
- Maintain CPD appropriate in their area of work (for example, applicable law and regulations)
- Follow advice given by professional bodies on ethical behaviour
- Help their own organisation to develop ethical ways of working
- Noting any unethical behaviour by others and addressing it with the individual where appropriate
What sort of things can employers do to create an ethical environment for their staff?
- Establish confidential procedures for ‘whistle blowing’, independent of the normal chain of command
- Include ethical evaluations in formal performance appraisals
- Include ethical standards in employee hiring, employment contracts and training
- Make sure there is adequate planning, training and ethical performance monitoring when implementing change
- Encouraging staff to progress their APC and become chartered with RICS
- Promoting CPD in the relevant area
What is the difference between ethics and integrity?
- Integrity: Internal quality of being honest, having strong moral principles and doing the right thing. It’s our personal code of conduct that *governs how we behave and conduct ourselves** personally and professionally.
- Ethics: More external. Applies to an organisation’s rules, regulations and organisational code of conduct that have been created to allow employees to work following moral principles.
Are you aware of any tools produced by RICS to help members make ethical decisions?
RICS have produced an ethics decision tree which can be used to consider any ethical matter or situation.
What is the difference between ‘ethics’ and ‘rules’?
Ethics = our moral values
Rules = e.g. Rules of Conduct are obligations. It’s the framework that we must work to
You’re attending a main contractor organised business conference where it is announced you have been randomly selected as the winner of an i-pad air prize draw. How would you act in this scenario?
- I’d be extremely uncomfortable accepting the prize in this scenario as it is of a significant value and could be interpreted as a prize
- Furthermore, due to working on a project with the main contractor at the time of this scenario, accepting the prize woul dhave been highly inappropriated and could be interpreted as having an affect on my business conduct during the project.
- I would respectfully decline the prize and suggest that this is amade as a charitable donation to a charity of the main contractor’s choice
- I’m aware that bribes are commonly distributed as random prizes and due to the seriousness of this incident I would report this to my line manager.
You recieve an invite to attend the theatre with some members of the project team but they dropped out due to illness at the last minute - would you still attend?
- In the first instance I would declare this hospitality on my company’s gifts and hospitality register.
- Assuming the invite was approved and I was authorized to attend, I would need to decline the invite due to the project team dropping out - since they won’t be present, this will not be a genuine business event.
- Consequently, I would decline this hospitality at the project team’s expense
A contractor invites you to lunch at a Michelin star restaurant. They say they are keen to discuss the details of their tender they are about to submit for the project you are working on. How would you respond?
Going to what sounds like a lavish lunch paid for by a bidder in the middle of a tender process is a potential offence under the UK Bribery Act.
If this were the first time, it would be ok to just decline and explain that such an invitation is inappropriate. However if this supplier is persistent, there is a red flag in that he wants to discuss things that he cannot put in writing, so we should report this infringement.
What are the 4 offences under the Bribery Act 2010?
- Bribing someone
- Being bribed
- Bribing a foreign official
- Failure of an organisation to prevent bribery
Bribing another person
A person is guilty of a crime if he or she “offers, promises or gives a financial or other advantage to another person” intending that advantage to “induce the person to perform improperly a relevant function or activity” or to reward a person for such behaviour.
A function or activity is “performed improperly” if it is performed in any way other than a reasonable person in the UK would expect it to be performed. An important point to note here is that it is the UK standard by which the expectation of performance is judged. This means that if the performance of the function or activity takes place outside the UK, then any local custom or practice must be disregarded unless it is permitted by the written law applicable to that country.
Following business concerns that corporate hospitality would fall foul of this offence, Government guidance on the Act provides a helpful example: an organisation’s invitation to foreign clients to attend a Six Nations match at Twickenham as part of a public relations exercise designed to cement good relations or enhance knowledge in the organisation’s field, is unlikely to be caught as there is unlikely to be evidence of an intention to induce improper performance of a relevant function.
Being bribed
A person is guilty of this offence if he or she requests, agrees to receive or accepts a financial or other advantage intending that, in consequence, a relevant function or activity should be performed improperly.
Bribery of a foreign public official
This is where a person offers, promises or gives a financial or other advantage to a foreign public official with the intention of influencing the official in the performance of his or her official functions. The person must intend to obtain or retain business or an advantage in the conduct of business by doing so. Importantly, there will be no offence where the official is permitted or required by the applicable local written law to be influenced by the advantage.
A foreign public official is one who holds a legislative, administrative or judicial position of any kind for a country or territory outside the UK. It can also include those who perform public functions for foreign governments or public agencies in foreign countries, and officials or agents of public international organisations such as the United Nations.
Again, Government guidance seeks to reassure business by stating that it is not the intention of the Act to prohibit reasonable and proportionate hospitality and promotional or other similar business expenditure intended for these purposes, as it is recognised that this is an established and important part of doing business. It made clear, however, that there will be circumstances where such activity can amount to bribery.
Failure of commercial organisation to prevent bribery
The fourth and final offence is the strict liability offence of failure of a commercial organisation to prevent bribery. A commercial organisation will be liable to prosecution if a person “associated with” it bribes another person, intending to obtain or retain business or an advantage in the conduct of business for that organisation.
The definition of “commercial organisation” is wide. A body or partnership that is incorporated or formed in the UK, irrespective of where it carries on business, will be caught, as well as an incorporated body or partnership which carries on a business or part of a business in the UK (irrespective of where it was incorporated or formed). It does not matter whether the business is charitable, educational, public or private: if it is incorporated or a partnership and engages in commercial activities it will be caught.
Similarly, the definition of “associated” persons is very broad. It will include a person (whether an individual or an incorporated or unincorporated body) who “performs services” for or on behalf of a commercial organisation. It will cover employees, agents and subsidiaries and even suppliers who are providing services for the organisation (except suppliers who are simply acting as the resellers of goods). Joint ventures could also be caught if the joint venture is performing services for the commercial organisation.
However, there will be a full defence for the organisation if it can show it had “adequate procedures” in place to prevent the persons associated with it from bribing - see below.
The Ministry of Justice, in its Guidance on the Bribery Act 2010, presents six principles for implementing adequate procedures to prevent bribery. What are the they?
- Proportionality
- Top-Level Commitment
- Risk Assessment
- Due Diligence
- Communication
- Monitoring
- Review
