This World Justice Project (WJP) Opportunity Fund grant originated as an action plan at the 2008 WJP World Forum in Vienna, Austria where WFEO’s then President Kamal Ayadi spoke and led a group discussion of the impact of corruption in engineering and the need for rule of law and legal education for engineers.  Neil Stansbury, one of the Tunisia workshop trainers and Director of the Global Infrastructure Anti-Corruption Centre (GIACC) summarized the goal of the workshop as follows:

 “One of the most effective ways of preventing corruption is to have well trained staff, who are aware of the risks of corruption, know how to identify, avoid and prevent it, and know what to do when faced with it.”

 The workshop was a train-the-trainer program for 27 leaders from 9 countries, most of them coming from Sub-Saharan Africa. The workshop was attended by heads of national engineering associations, university professors in civil, chemical, and water engineering, as well as senior procurement and human resource specialists. The ultimate objective of this training program was to inform a number of facilitators who will conduct face-to-face training courses, seminars and meetings to benefit a larger number of engineering societies as well as businesses and government agencies. Each engineering society which was represented committed to implement training programs for its members. The estimated number of beneficiaries is expected to reach 1000 engineers per country in 5-years.         

 A high number of participants realized that they could play a crucial role in denouncing and preventing corruption because they are well placed to detect corrupt practices in construction wherever they occur in the design phase, construction, or in maintenance.  As early as June 2009, participants are leading their own local training in partnership with engineering societies, NGOs, business associations, and universities.

 As indicated by one of the Southern African participants:

“This training introduced us to tools that engineers can use to exert pressure on government to reform the legal framework to prevent corrupt behavior with efficient mechanisms of accountability and punishment against proven breaches.”

Participants were also excited about the multidisciplinary nature of the workshop. The workshop brought together players from such diverse disciplines as education, engineering, law, business and finance. 

Kamel Ayadi, WFEO Immediate Past President and founding Chair of the Anti-Corruption Standing Committee as well as workshop organizer, concluded:

 “This workshop is the first step in creating a new culture among individual engineers that encourages and supports ethical behaviour and compliance with the law.”

 Workshop Program

 Module 1:  Individual Integrity and Ethical Decision-Making

Participants analyzed case study examples and situations showcased in the movie ETHICANA and developed skills to formulate, analyze, and compare solutions to ethical dilemmas involving corruption encountered in the workplace. During the discussion session the Nigerian delegation shared a very effective approach that entails appointing more than one engineer as project supervisor. Project supervision is shared between all team members who rotate from one phase of the project to another.

 Module 2: Preventing and Identifying Corruption on Construction Projects

Participants were involved in discussions regarding best practices and specific tools around the following topics: 

• Tools to promote transparency and prevent corruption by a combination of corporate and project measures;

• Information about existing and new international anti-corruption laws and their implications for governments and companies;
• Anti-corruption actions for stakeholders. Participants agreed that to be effective, anti-corruption measures must impact on all phases and on all major players in construction projects.

 Module 3:  FIDIC Business Integrity Management

All participants discussed key components of developing an integrity management system in their workplace which could serve as a benchmark against existing procedures. Specifically, participants discussed how to design an integrity management system and to formulate a code of conduct.