5 Acme Construction has a contract for the construction of a hospital. The company’s project manager subcontracted both the electrical and mechanical scopes of work to separate subcontractors. The project superintendent developed a three-week look ahead schedule which showed that the electrical subcontractor could start to work on the project on September 20 and told the subcontractor to start work on that day. The electrical subcontractor arrived with their workers on September 20 and found that the project was not ready for electrical rough-in to start. The project site was not ready for the electrical subcontractor to start work until September 24. Being delayed, the electrical subcontractor submitted a claim to Acme for the additional cost incurred by the delay. Acme’s project manager took the claim, added mark-up for Acme, and submitted it to the project owner for payment.

• Were the actions of the project manager ethical?

• What would you have done in this situation?