Code of Professional Ethics
Code of Professional Ethics The Code of Professional Conduct is binding on all Certified Members of the Institute practicing as Certified Contract Manager, Certified Project Manager or Certified Facility Management Consultants.
The briefer Code of Conduct is binding on all those members not in practice as Contract, Project and Facility Management Consultants – including retired members and Organizational Affiliates. Members of the ICPFM give advice to all levels of Contract, Project and Facility Managers and with this come the obligation to maintain the highest standards of integrity and competence.
In recognition of their obligations to clients, to the public at large and to the profession, all members annually agree in writing to comply with ICPFM’s Code of Professional Conduct, and to undertake relevant continuing professional development activities.
Code of Professional Conduct
ICPFM’s Code of Professional Conduct is structured on three principles:
Meeting the client! s requirements;
Integrity, independence, objectivity;
Responsibility to the profession and to the ICPFM.
These principles are underpinned by detailed rules, which are specific injunctions, and practical notes.
Definitions used on The Code of Professional Conduct
Member: Certified members of ICPFM.
Client: The person, firm or organization with whom the member makes an agreement or contract for the provision of services.
Declaration: A written statement referring to and disclosing the facts relevant to the situations covered by particular Rules of the Code.
Independent: In a position to express your own opinion freely without any control or influence from others outside the consulting organization, and without the need to consider the impact of such opinion to your own interests.
Disciplinary Action
Members are liable to disciplinary action if their conduct is found, by the Disciplinary Committee of the ICPFM be in contravention of the Code, or to bring discredit to the profession or to the ICPFM In accordance with the Code, members may be required to make a declaration in answer to enquiries from the ICPFM concerning their professional conduct.
A member failing to make such a declaration may be found in breach of the Principle to which the rule or note relates.
Meeting the Client’s Requirements
A member shall regard the client’s requirements and interests as paramount at all times
Disclosure
2.1 A member will disclose at the earliest opportunity any special relationships, circumstances or business interests which might influence or impair, or could be seen by the client or others to influence or impair, the member’s judgment or objectivity on a particular assignment.
2.1.1 Requires the prior disclosure of all relevant personal, financial or other business interests which could not be inferred from the description of the services offered.
In particular this relates to:
Any directorship or controlling interest in any business in competition with the client
Any financial interest in goods or services recommended or supplied to the client;
Any personal relationship with any individual in the client’s employ;
Any personal investment in the client organization or in its parent or any subsidiary companies;
Any recent or current engagements in sensitive areas of work with directly competitive clients;
Any work for a third party on the opposite side of a transaction e.g. bid defense, acquisitions, work for the regulator and the regulated, assessing the products of an existing client.
Conflicts of interest
2.2 A member shall not serve a client under circumstances which are inconsistent with the member’s professional obligations or which in any way might be seen to impair the member’s integrity.
Wherever a conflict or potential conflict of interest arises, the member shall, as the circumstances require, withdraw from the assignment, remove the source of conflict or disclose and obtain the agreement of the parties concerned as to the performance or continuance of the engagement.
2.2. 1 It should be noted that the Institute may, depending on the circumstances, be one of the ‘parties concerned’. For example, if a member is under pressure to act in a way which would bring the member into non-compliance with the Code of Professional Conduct, in addition to any other declaration which it might be appropriate to make, the facts should be declared to the Institute.
Inducements
2.3 A member shall not accept discounts, hospitality, commissions or gifts as an inducement to show favor to any person or body, nor attempt to obtain advantage by giving financial inducement to clients or client staff.
2.3.1 Payment for legitimate marketing activity may be made, and national laws should be respected.
Privacy of information
2.4 A member shall not use any confidential information about a client’s affairs, elicited during the course of an assignment, for personal benefit or for the benefit of others outside the client organization; there shall be no insider dealing or trading as legally defined or understood.
2.5 When required or appropriate a member will establish specific methods of working which preserve the privacy of the client’s information.
Objectivity
2.6 A member will advise the client of any significant reservations the member may have about the client