National Institute for Engineering Ethics
(Case 1026)
Three years ago, Jack Florin was promoted to the position of chief geotechnical engineer of Welk Consultants, a geotechnical engineering consulting firm located in Fargo, North Dakota, after having been with the firm for more than 18 years. Welk Consultants is a full service firm in geotechnical engineering, maintaining several drilling rigs, experienced drilling crews and geologists, as well as a laboratory. The drilling and sampling operations are overseen by the firm's drilling manager, Ernest Downholt.
In his capacity as chief geotechnical engineer, Jack has written professional engineering reports that provide design parameters for the foundations of over a hundred structures, with projects ranging from small commercial buildings to large grain elevators. In the conduct of his work, Jack must rely on the data gathered by the firm's drilling and boring crews and geologists, often spread over a territory covering several hundred miles of eastern North Dakota. As a check, Jack occasionally visits the project sites while the drillers and geologist are at work, but because of an increased work load and other personnel management responsibilities, he is normally in the office writing reports and overseeing the work of a number of younger engineers.
Realizing that he has not been in the field much recently, Jack decides to visit the site of a large proposed three-story office building complex approximately 60 miles from the firm's office. With the boring logs of most of the 18 planned subsurface explorations provided by the firm's drill crew and geologist in hand, he discovers upon arrival at the site that the drill rig and crew have come and gone. Jack looks for signs of the borings on the site but can find none.
Jack contacts Ernest Downholt by cellular telephone and arranges to meet him the following morning at the site. When Ernest arrives in the morning he also searches in vain for evidence of the borings, and in desperation points to what are obviously prairie dog mounds, claiming they are the remains of the drilling operation.
The accuracy of the subsurface exploration logs and data given to him by the drill crew is critical to Jack's analyses and design recommendations. It is now Friday morning, and the foundation design recommendation report is due in the client's office by Thursday of the following week, six days from now.
What should you do?
(Note: In the process of deciding what to do, voters were asked to try to
identify who among the various parties concerned with this action acted
unethically, and why.)
Alternate Approaches:
1. Jack should not be that concerned. The soil conditions in the area of the project are not that variable, so looking at boring logs from other sites in the area should suffice to provide enough subsurface data for design purposes, especially if he uses very conservative assumptions for design and construction. Nonetheless, he should talk to Ernest and tell him in no uncertain terms that this situation with the drillers and geologist is not to be allowed again. In this way, Jack can meet his report deadline with the client, and prevent similar occurrences in the future.
2. Jack should call the geologist who was supposed to be on the site, give him a piece of his mind in no uncertain terms, and demand that they (the geologist and the drillers) prove that the borings were done at the proper site and that the boring logs submitted are actually based on soil samples recovered at the site boring locations. If the geologist and drillers cannot do that to Jack's satisfaction within a day, Jack should fire the entire crew.
3. Jack should fire Ernest Downholt, since it was Ernest's responsibility to oversee the drilling operations and he apparently failed to do so, or was in cahoots with the drillers and geologist.
4. Jack should have Ernest contact the geologist or head of the drilling
team to meet him at the site the following day and point out the locations
of the borings. It is possible that Jack and Ernest were at the wrong site;
it is possible that the geologists and drillers drilled at the wrong site;
it is possible that the geologists and drillers didn't drill at all, but
manufactured the boring logs based on their experience in the area.
If it turns out that Jack and Ernest were at the correct site and the
geologist cannot show them the boring locations, Jack should:
5. Require lie detector tests for Ernest Downholt and the members of the drilling and boring crew.
6. Be upfront with the client. Tell them what you have discovered (or think you may have discovered) and ask for additional time to complete the report. Your honesty will convince the client of your obligation to complete the job correctly.
7. Reschedule duplicate drilling with another crew at the correct site for the next available time, call the client and tell them that the data collected was inconclusive and additional boring and sampling is essential for an informed and reliable report.
8. Reschedule duplicate drilling with another crew at the correct site for the next available time, call the client and tell them that the drill crew was unavoidably detained and the report will be several days late. This is much better than not communicating with the client at all, and should not be a problem, since Jack has worked with the client many times in the past.
9. Require the geologists and drillers to go back to the correct site immediately, work over the weekend and have the field boring layout plan, boring logs and soil samples back in the office for Jack to go over while they are still there on Monday morning.
10. Require the geologists and drillers to go back to the correct site immediately, work over the weekend and have the field boring layout plan, boring logs and soil samples back in the office for Jack to go over while they are still there on Monday morning. He should also require that all of this work be done without pay to the geologist and drillers.
11. Require the geologists and drillers to go back to the correct site immediately, work over the weekend and have the field boring layout plan, boring logs and soil samples back in the office for Jack to go over while they are still there on Monday morning. He should also require that all of this work be done without pay to the geologist and drillers, and they should also pay for the truck and car expenses involved in going back to the site, as well as for the motel and meal expenses for staying overnight in the area of the site to finish the work by Sunday evening.
12. Require the geologists and drillers to go back to the correct site immediately, work over the weekend and have the field boring layout plan, boring logs and soil samples back in the office for Jack to go over while they are still there on Monday morning. He should also require that Ernest Downholt accompany the drilling crew and geologist and stay with them on the site until the work is completed.
13. Require the geologists and drillers to go back to the correct site immediately, work over the weekend and have the field boring layout plan, boring logs and soil samples back in the office for Jack to go over while they are still there on Monday morning. He should also require that Ernest Downholt accompany the drilling crew and geologist and stay with them on the site until the work is completed. In addition he should require that all of this work be done without pay to the geologist and drillers, and they should also pay for the truck and car expenses involved in going back to the site, as well as for the motel and meal expenses for staying overnight in the area of the site to finish the work by Sunday evening.
14. After obtaining the correct information for the site from the geologist and drillers, Jack should have Ernest Downholt fire the geologist and drillers, since they can never be trusted again and the legal liability implications to the firm are tremendous if design recommendations are based on erroneous or false information, which could cause damage to the finished project, or injury or death. He should also remind Ernest that it is his responsibility to oversee the field crews, and if this type of situation should ever arise in the future, Ernest will be out of a job and down the road in the blink of an eye.