• Respond to each question fully, but keep your responses succinct - meaning clear and simple.

Ethics W Dear Ethics Adviser. I am writing you at the request of some of my younger employees. I own a general construction company that has recently completed building a multirnodel transportation center. We were issued a punchst and we have been addressing all the items contained on the list. Last week. late in the day. I went to the site to review the status of the punchlist work. As I was walking the site with my superintendent. i noticed irregularities in the masonry joints along the back wall of the building. This wall is located 4 feet from a parking garage that runs the width and height of the wall. When we took a closer look. we discovered that the edges of the masonry block in the entire wall are not level or flush with each other. These irregularities were not seen during the punchlist walk through. Apparently. the irregularities can only be seen in the late afternoon. Additionally. you have to be between the two stmctures to see the problems with the block. I have checked my contract and the owner and architect are responsible for nding defects in the work prior to contract close-out. I am not responsible for pointing defects out to thorn. Therefore. I am not inclined to point out this problem. especially since the problem may cost me thousands of dollam to x. My younger employees. however. think that silence equals unethical behavior and have asked that I get your opinion before making a nal decision. Remember. my younger employees' money is not on the line. Sincerely. Back Against the Wall Ethics nario #2 Dear Ethics Adviser: I am a general contractor who constructs public projects in the range of $1 million to $5 miition. Presently. we have an overpass project and three separate roadwayr widening projects. Each project was designed. and is being run. by the some engineering consonant. The projects. however. have different public owners. On the overpass project. we have been encountering conditions not shown on the plans or in the specications. These conditions have generated numerous change propomls and change orders. At rst. the owner and engineering consultant readiiy accepted the proposals. but as the conicts continued to rise. both have become less responsive and willing to consider the problems or proposals to resolve them. In fact. the engineering consultant has proposed to 'oset' the mounting costs on the overpass project with cost reduction proposals on the other projects. For example. on the overpass we cannot run drainage lines as shown on the plans and specs. In order to pay for the cost of relocating the lines. the engineering consuiiant has told us that he would allow us to provide Bess expensive guardrail on one of the roadway widening projects with no corres ponding contract cost reduction. At rst the engineering consultant's proposal did not seem proper. but the more I think about it the more i cannot nd anything wrong with the proposal. By accepting these proposals. I avoid change order hassles. a slowdown of the project. and the development of bad feeiings. The only downside I see is that the engineering consultant may try to renege on those unwritten proposals. but I would Irnow this fairly quickly. What should I do? Sincerely. Hassle Free in Public Work