An empirical comparison of ethical perceptions among the consultant’s quantity surveyor and contractor’s quantity surveyor in the UK construction industry

Fraudulent and corrupt practices are a worldwide phenomenon within the construction industry. Tender collusion, price fixing, subcontractor bribes, and overbilling have all been found to occur at project level. These practices not only have deleterious effects on morale, integrity and trust, but also financial implications that can extend into the trillions of pounds. Little focus has been placed on the specific roles of the consultant’s quantity surveyor and contractor’s quantity surveyor regarding their ethical actions. With the use of a questionnaire survey, the ethical pressures, unethical temptations and the frequency of unethical behaviour that differing groups of quantity surveyors have witnessed in the UK construction industry was uncovered. The main conclusions drawn from this study are: (1) there was no statistical significance found between the contractor’s quantity surveyor and consultant’s quantity surveyor regarding the extent of pressure exerted from their employer to engage in unethical practices;(2) there was no statistical significance found between the contractor’s quantity surveyor and consultant’s quantity surveyor regarding the temptation to act unethically; and (3) the contractor’s quantity surveyor was more frequently found to have witnessed unethical practices when compared to the consultant’s quantity surveyor