Walking a fine line

“So who’s getting rich in Shanghai?”

The lift went quiet. Shoes were diligently inspected before someone at the back muttered “corrupt government officials!”

The answer had everyone avoiding eye contact again. In fairness, the Chinese authorities are dealing with corruption and they are among the first to admit that they have a challenge on their hands especially when business done there was always on the basis of guangxi, or networking.

However, ‘networking’ does not do the term justice. At one extreme it is an effective way of getting things done, at the other it fosters corruption. But before we get too smug about this, it is worth pointing out that things may not be too clever over here either.

Returning from that trip abroad, one of the first tasks was to catch up with the reading and see what’s been happening.

An article by Tony Bingham in Building about the “Anti Corruption Code for Individuals in the Construction and Engineering Industry” could not fail to catch the eye. This code, by Neil and Catherine Stansbury on behalf of Transparency International, is a real eye opener, which could have a profound impact on all of us.

The reason is that practices that have been considered as part of the rough and tumble of the industry could actually be criminal and, as Bingham says, the “Directions to Dartmoor”. If you are in any doubt as to how seriously this is all being treated then the Society of Construction Law is looking to incorporate the code into its work on ethics.

I am not going to repeat Bingham, the code or the Society for Construction Law but I would advise you to go to the respective websites, read them, and then ask yourself whether you now feel totally comfortable about some of the things you have recently been involved in.

Fancy having the Old Bill smashing your door down at 6 am? Never mind corporate manslaughter, the prospect of being done for corruption, false accounting and deception is real. You can learn a lot travelling in a lift.