Free and Open Competition Violated by Engineer C Pre-Selection Promise
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/117#Free_and_Open_Competition_Violated_by_Engineer_C_Pre-Selection_Promise
Properties
Instance of
FreeandOpenCompetitionasEngineeringEthicsBoundaryCondition
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#FreeandOpenCompetitionasEngineeringEthicsBoundaryCondition
Applied to
City X future engineering contract
Engineer C's verbal pre-selection promise to Engineer A
Balancing with
Loyalty to past contributors
Recognition of speculative service contributions
Concrete expression
Engineer C's verbal promise to select Engineer A's firm for a future City X contract — without public announcement or consideration of other qualified firms — directly violated the free and open competition norm that governs public engineering procurement
Confidence
0.92
Importance
high
Interpretation
Free and open competition requires, at minimum, public announcement and equal opportunity for all qualified engineers to be considered; a pre-selection promise forecloses this process entirely
Invoked by
NSPE Board of Ethical Review
Tension resolution
The Board holds that no degree of prior contribution or good faith appreciation justifies bypassing the competitive selection process; free and open competition is a non-negotiable boundary condition
Source Evidence
Source text
one must assume that the method would, at a minimum, involve public announcement along with free and open opportunity for all qualified and eligible engineers and engineering firms to be considered for the contract
Text references
Engineer C's action in verbally agreeing to select Engineer A's firm on a future engineering project for City X would constitute a subversion or a misuse of the existing procurement policies and procedures in place in City X
one must assume that the method would, at a minimum, involve public announcement along with free and open opportunity for all qualified and eligible engineers and engineering firms to be considered for the contract
TTL
@prefix case117: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/117#> .
@prefix owl: <http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#> .
@prefix proeth: <http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#> .
@prefix prov: <http://www.w3.org/ns/prov#> .
@prefix rdfs: <http://www.w3.org/2000/01/rdf-schema#> .
@prefix xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> .
case117:Free_and_Open_Competition_Violated_by_Engineer_C_Pre-Selection_Promise a proeth:FreeandOpenCompetitionasEngineeringEthicsBoundaryCondition,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Free and Open Competition Violated by Engineer C Pre-Selection Promise" ;
proeth:appliedto "City X future engineering contract",
"Engineer C's verbal pre-selection promise to Engineer A" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Loyalty to past contributors",
"Recognition of speculative service contributions" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer C's verbal promise to select Engineer A's firm for a future City X contract — without public announcement or consideration of other qualified firms — directly violated the free and open competition norm that governs public engineering procurement" ;
proeth:confidence "0.92" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "117" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-28T15:52:44.038907+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "117" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-28T15:52:44.038907+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Free and open competition requires, at minimum, public announcement and equal opportunity for all qualified engineers to be considered; a pre-selection promise forecloses this process entirely" ;
proeth:invokedby "NSPE Board of Ethical Review" ;
proeth:principleclass "Free and Open Competition as Engineering Ethics Boundary Condition" ;
proeth:sourcetext "one must assume that the method would, at a minimum, involve public announcement along with free and open opportunity for all qualified and eligible engineers and engineering firms to be considered for the contract" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The Board holds that no degree of prior contribution or good faith appreciation justifies bypassing the competitive selection process; free and open competition is a non-negotiable boundary condition" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer C's action in verbally agreeing to select Engineer A's firm on a future engineering project for City X would constitute a subversion or a misuse of the existing procurement policies and procedures in place in City X",
"one must assume that the method would, at a minimum, involve public announcement along with free and open opportunity for all qualified and eligible engineers and engineering firms to be considered for the contract" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 117 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T16:01:19.949005"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 117 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
117
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-28T15:52:44.038907+00:00
First case
117
Generated
2026-02-28T15:52:44.038907+00:00
Attributed to
Case 117 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T16:01:19.949005
Generated by
ProEthica Case 117 Extraction