Verbal Pre-Selection Acceptance Prohibition Applied to Engineer A
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/117#Verbal_Pre-Selection_Acceptance_Prohibition_Applied_to_Engineer_A
Properties
Instance of
VerbalPre-SelectionAcceptanceProhibition
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#VerbalPre-SelectionAcceptanceProhibition
Applied to
Acceptance of Engineer C's verbal pre-selection promise
Balancing with
Competitive Employment Freedom With Confidentiality Constraint
Loyalty
Concrete expression
Engineer A's firm accepts — or at minimum fails to decline — Engineer C's verbal promise of future contract selection, thereby participating in an arrangement that bypasses competitive procurement and confers an improper advantage on Engineer A's firm relative to other qualified engineering firms that will never have the opportunity to compete for the promised project
Confidence
0.89
Importance
high
Interpretation
Even as the passive recipient of an unsolicited pre-selection promise, Engineer A bears an ethical obligation to decline the arrangement and insist on participation in a lawful competitive process; silence or acquiescence constitutes participation in the ethical violation
Invoked by
Engineer A Procurement-Bypassing Engineering Firm
Tension resolution
The obligation to decline improper pre-selection promises is not overridden by the engineer's prior speculative contributions or by the gratitude of the public official; the competitive integrity of public procurement takes precedence
Source Evidence
Source text
Engineer C, the chief city engineer, verbally promises to select Engineer A's firm on a future engineering project for City X
Text references
Engineer A is a principal in a medium-sized engineering firm with expertise in mechanical and electrical engineering
Engineer C, the chief city engineer, verbally promises to select Engineer A's firm on a future engineering project for City X
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:Verbal_Pre-Selection_Acceptance_Prohibition_Applied_to_Engineer_A a proeth:VerbalPre-SelectionAcceptanceProhibition,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Verbal Pre-Selection Acceptance Prohibition Applied to Engineer A" ;
proeth:appliedto "Acceptance of Engineer C's verbal pre-selection promise" ;
proeth:balancingwith "Competitive Employment Freedom With Confidentiality Constraint",
"Loyalty" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "Engineer A's firm accepts — or at minimum fails to decline — Engineer C's verbal promise of future contract selection, thereby participating in an arrangement that bypasses competitive procurement and confers an improper advantage on Engineer A's firm relative to other qualified engineering firms that will never have the opportunity to compete for the promised project" ;
proeth:confidence "0.89" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "117" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "facts" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-28T15:47:33.923942+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "117" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-28T15:47:33.923942+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Even as the passive recipient of an unsolicited pre-selection promise, Engineer A bears an ethical obligation to decline the arrangement and insist on participation in a lawful competitive process; silence or acquiescence constitutes participation in the ethical violation" ;
proeth:invokedby "Engineer A Procurement-Bypassing Engineering Firm" ;
proeth:principleclass "Verbal Pre-Selection Acceptance Prohibition" ;
proeth:sourcetext "Engineer C, the chief city engineer, verbally promises to select Engineer A's firm on a future engineering project for City X" ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The obligation to decline improper pre-selection promises is not overridden by the engineer's prior speculative contributions or by the gratitude of the public official; the competitive integrity of public procurement takes precedence" ;
proeth:textreferences "Engineer A is a principal in a medium-sized engineering firm with expertise in mechanical and electrical engineering",
"Engineer C, the chief city engineer, verbally promises to select Engineer A's firm on a future engineering project for City X" ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 117 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T16:01:19.942799"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 117 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
117
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
facts
First discovered
2026-02-28T15:47:33.923942+00:00
First case
117
Generated
2026-02-28T15:47:33.923942+00:00
Attributed to
Case 117 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T16:01:19.942799
Generated by
ProEthica Case 117 Extraction