Public Procurement Confidentiality Self-Protection Obligation Invoked as Caution to Engineers
P · Principle
Individual
http://proethica.org/ontology/case/141#Public_Procurement_Confidentiality_Self-Protection_Obligation_Invoked_as_Caution_to_Engineers
Properties
Instance of
PublicProcurementConfidentialitySelf-ProtectionObligation
http://proethica.org/ontology/intermediate#PublicProcurementConfidentialitySelf-ProtectionObligation
Applied to
Engineer A Present Case Incumbent Engineer
Engineers submitting qualifications to public agencies generally
Balancing with
FOIA-Based Competitor Intelligence Ethical Use Constraint
Fairness in Professional Competition
Concrete expression
The Board cautions engineers that they should avoid including confidential or proprietary information in public procurement submissions because such information may be subject to mandatory public disclosure under applicable FOIA laws — placing the responsibility for protecting sensitive information on the submitting engineer rather than on the procurement system
Confidence
0.92
Importance
high
Interpretation
Engineers bear personal responsibility for protecting their own confidential information in public procurement contexts by exercising informed judgment about what to include in submissions subject to public disclosure laws
Invoked by
NSPE Board of Ethical Review
Tension resolution
The Board resolves the tension between competitive sensitivity and procurement transparency by placing the burden of confidentiality protection on the submitting engineer rather than restricting FOIA access
Source Evidence
Source text
the Board would caution engineers that in situations such as the one represented by the facts of this case, an engineer may wish to avoid including any confidential or proprietary information in this type of submission to a public agency since such information could be subject to public disclosure under applicable laws and regulations.
Text references
the Board would caution engineers that in situations such as the one represented by the facts of this case, an engineer may wish to avoid including any confidential or proprietary information in this type of submission to a public agency since such information could be subject to public disclosure under applicable laws and regulations.
TTL
@prefix case141: <http://proethica.org/ontology/case/141#> .
@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#> .
case141:Public_Procurement_Confidentiality_Self-Protection_Obligation_Invoked_as_Caution_to_Engineers a proeth:PublicProcurementConfidentialitySelf-ProtectionObligation,
owl:NamedIndividual ;
rdfs:label "Public Procurement Confidentiality Self-Protection Obligation Invoked as Caution to Engineers" ;
proeth:appliedto "Engineer A Present Case Incumbent Engineer",
"Engineers submitting qualifications to public agencies generally" ;
proeth:balancingwith "FOIA-Based Competitor Intelligence Ethical Use Constraint",
"Fairness in Professional Competition" ;
proeth:conceptCategory "Principle" ;
proeth:concreteexpression "The Board cautions engineers that they should avoid including confidential or proprietary information in public procurement submissions because such information may be subject to mandatory public disclosure under applicable FOIA laws — placing the responsibility for protecting sensitive information on the submitting engineer rather than on the procurement system" ;
proeth:confidence "0.92" ;
proeth:discoveredincase "141" ;
proeth:discoveredinpass "2" ;
proeth:discoveredinsection "discussion" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredat "2026-02-28T13:49:21.568290+00:00" ;
proeth:firstdiscoveredincase "141" ;
proeth:generatedattime "2026-02-28T13:49:21.568290+00:00" ;
proeth:importance "high" ;
proeth:interpretation "Engineers bear personal responsibility for protecting their own confidential information in public procurement contexts by exercising informed judgment about what to include in submissions subject to public disclosure laws" ;
proeth:invokedby "NSPE Board of Ethical Review" ;
proeth:principleclass "Public Procurement Confidentiality Self-Protection Obligation" ;
proeth:sourcetext "the Board would caution engineers that in situations such as the one represented by the facts of this case, an engineer may wish to avoid including any confidential or proprietary information in this type of submission to a public agency since such information could be subject to public disclosure under applicable laws and regulations." ;
proeth:tensionresolution "The Board resolves the tension between competitive sensitivity and procurement transparency by placing the burden of confidentiality protection on the submitting engineer rather than restricting FOIA access" ;
proeth:textreferences "the Board would caution engineers that in situations such as the one represented by the facts of this case, an engineer may wish to avoid including any confidential or proprietary information in this type of submission to a public agency since such information could be subject to public disclosure under applicable laws and regulations." ;
proeth:wasattributedto "Case 141 Extraction" ;
prov:generatedAtTime "2026-02-28T13:59:20.700233"^^xsd:dateTime ;
prov:wasGeneratedBy "ProEthica Case 141 Extraction" .
Metadata
Extraction details
Discovered in case
141
Discovered in pass
2
Discovered in section
discussion
First discovered
2026-02-28T13:49:21.568290+00:00
First case
141
Generated
2026-02-28T13:49:21.568290+00:00
Attributed to
Case 141 Extraction
Generated
2026-02-28T13:59:20.700233
Generated by
ProEthica Case 141 Extraction