An engineer employed by a municipal public works department is evaluating bids for a water main replacement contract. Before the award, one of the bidding contractors offers the engineer tickets to a professional sporting event with a face value of USD 300. According to the NCEES Model Rules, the engineer should:
- (A)accept the tickets because their value is nominal relative to the contract amount
- (B)accept the tickets and disclose the gift to the department after the contract is awarded
- (C)decline the tickets and continue the impartial evaluation of all bids
- (D)decline the tickets and disqualify the contractor from the bidding process
Show worked solution
Answer: (C)
A gratuity from a bidder on work the engineer is evaluating must be refused outright — no value threshold, no cure by disclosure — but refusal, not disqualification, is the limit of the engineer's own authority.
Licensees may not solicit or accept anything of value, directly or indirectly, from contractors or their agents in connection with work for their employer or client.
Tickets from a bidder whose bid the engineer is judging fall squarely within that prohibition; neither the USD 300 value nor after-the-fact disclosure changes it.
Disqualifying the bidder is a procurement decision that belongs to the department, not the individual engineer. The duty is to refuse and keep the evaluation impartial.
FE Reference Handbook — Ethics and Professional Practice: NCEES Model Rules, Rules of Professional Conduct (conflicts of interest and gratuities provisions)
Why the other choices appear
- (A)Applies a nonexistent de minimis exception; the Model Rules prohibition on gratuities from contractors in connection with the licensee's work contains no value threshold.
- (B)Treats disclosure as a cure for acceptance; disclosure applies to unavoidable conflicts of interest, not to gratuities, which must be refused outright.
- (D)Overextends the engineer's authority; the ethical duty is to refuse the gratuity, and unilaterally disqualifying the bidder is a procurement action the rules neither require nor authorize the engineer to take alone.