Ethics in Professional Practices in the contect of Nepal - My Experience of Working Around the World

1. Ethics in Professional Practices – My Experience
By Prakash Shrestha, P.E. (eng.pshrestha@gmail.com)
In my over 25 years of professional tenure, I have worked in various
parts of the world including in Nepal, India, Middle Eastern
Countries, African Countries, Europe and now in USA as a
Professional Civil Engineer taking various responsibilities. When it
comes to a question of exercising ethics in those countries, I have
mixed experiences. Answer to a big question that I always ask
myself prior to working in these countries; “why some countries in
the world are called developed and the others undeveloped or
Least Developed?”, is now obvious for me after having worked in
those countries. Previously I used to think they are called developed because they live in
better homes, eat good food, have better education system, better infrastructures, so on.
But now I can tell that those countries are called developed not because of all these but
they are called developed because of their good governance, honesty and hard works.
It’s true that the world has never been free of corruption, and will never be since it is
attributed to one of the human characteristics. Even the developed nations are not escaped
out of it, but the question is to what level and frequency. My experience of working in
various socio-culturally diverse countries across the globe tells me that the western
countries are relatively less corrupt than many African and Asian nations. The
Transparency International (TI) corroborates this fact, which reports that Asian and
African countries including Nepal are among the most corrupt nations in the world with
Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) just little over 2 when this index for majority of the
western countries is above 7. The Transparency International has expressed their serious
concern for further deteriorating situation as a result of increased corruptions in those
countries. (Note, the CPI range from 0 for a highly corrupt country to 10 for a clean
country).
The corruption
in African
countries and in
majority of
Asian countries
is so visible that
as if it is the part
of their lifestyle
and culture.
When I was
working in
Africa, there
were times when
I had to seriously
plan my driving
route to go out of

2. my residence (during the weekends and holidays when my chauffeur was not available)
to select a route that has a least number of security check points. Their intended mission
was to control illegal drivers and undocumented immigrants, but their undercover
mission was something different. The check points were nothing but like fish traps to trap
people that they think have lots of money, mostly the white people. Since I also fell in
that group according to their denomination though I am not, I had to plan carefully not to
fall in their hands. Similarly, construction of a multi-million dollar highway project
financed by the African Development Bank was cancelled, when I was there, due to
massive corruption found in the project.
Most of us must have witnessed and became victimized of one or other forms of
corruption in Nepal. Although the corruption in Nepal is not so much visible as in
African countries, the corruption exists everywhere in all levels as if this is a part of our
culture and lifestyle. An inconvenient truth is “Nepal has the dubious distinction of being
one of the most corrupt countries in the world”.
I wish to share some of my unforgettable bitter experiences of corruption in Nepal. Once,
some 25 years ago, I was running a consulting engineering business in partnership with a
friend. In the initial years, we won couple of good projects from various governmental
departments of Nepal. We worked very hard. We went to fields for surveying, studies,
designed the projects, prepared reports, and submitted to the respective departments. But
the story did not stop here. Upon completion, when we went to collect our money
(cheques) for our engineering services, the department accountants wouldn’t release the
cheques until we first issue them our cheques of amount equal to 20 percent of the
receivable sum. Having young blood then, I was furious and was ready to defend hard for
my right, then my friend pulled me aside and said “Prakashji, please don’t do this. If we
do this, we will never get other projects next time”. I cooled down and realized he has a
point. I didn’t want to be an odd-out person and become out of work and business. So we
brought our cheques to pay them first to get our cheques that we earned through our
sweats. This is the situation in Nepal. This is how we slowly get dragged into this corrupt
system and become part of it. Unless we break the backbone of this corrupt system, we
all have to be one or other way part of this. This is a reality. Bribery and corruption are
thriving in public offices everyday, and there is no sign of getting it better.
The latest disgraceful and embarrassing scams of selling diplomatic passports (red
passports) by none other than the law makers and the Sudan scam on multi-million rupees
misappropriation to procure logistics for the Nepal peacekeeping mission in Darfur are
the few examples of our on going corrupt culture of Nepal.
Greed of money is the main aspiration towards corruption. It has taken a heavy toll in
Nepal’s economy and on infrastructure development process quantitatively and
qualitatively. Public facility projects built mobilizing limited fund becomes useless soon
after they are opened to public due to massive corruption in the project.
The cost of corruption in any form and in any sector is unacceptable. But the question is
“Can the corrupt culture of Nepal be changed?” Cautiously, the answer is “Yes”. If ethics

3. and law are enforced and monitored, the corruption can substantially be minimized if not
eradicated completely. Ethics and Law are the two most powerful tools for fighting
against the corruption. Ethics help prevent happening corruption at the first place through
good moral principles and honesty. Therefore, all other preventive options including
promoting ethics must be attempted to avoid the environment being conducive to
corruption.
The engineers and scientists in Nepal cannot tell the politicians and bureaucrats to follow
the principles of ethics in their jobs but they can set an example by following a standard
of ethics (code of conducts) in their professional practices. In the United States, the
National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) released in 1946 its Canons of Ethics
for Engineers and Rules of Professional Conduct, which evolved to the current Code of
Ethics, adopted in 1964. These requests ultimately led to the creation of the Board of
Ethical Review in 1954. Today, many engineering professional societies including state
chapters have their own codes of ethics. These have been incorporated to a greater or
lesser degree into the regulatory laws of several jurisdictions as a guide to ethical
practice. The same can be done in Nepal if we all realize that now the time has come to
act together to fight against this epidemic.
Each State in the United States has a Board of Professional Engineers, which requires a
person to acquire Professional Engineering (P.E.) license to engage in the practice of
engineering. Practices without such licenses are considered criminal acts and is
punishable by laws. In order to promote continuing education system, the Board further
mandates completion of 10 to 15 Professional Development Hours (PDH) to renew their
licenses in the areas of practices, which includes an hour of Ethics. PDH lessons are
acquired either attending seminars and conferences or attending in the classes.
We engineers, scientists and other professionals working in the United States sincerely
request the leaders of each professional society of Nepal including the Nepal Engineering
Council (NEC), Nepal Engineers’ Society (NES), the Society of Consulting Architectural
and Engineering Firms (SCAEF) to come together to enact the requirement of licensure
to practice in the fields of engineering not only to fight against onslaught of corruption
practices but also to enhance the image of one of the most prestigious and responsible
jobs of our society to build a stronger Nepal.