Working Ethics - Case Study

Introduction

I will build my answer based on Barger decision-making process, which is based on eight step questions, however I will not use the full process as I will choose from it to fit my case and will combine some steps together.

1)   Describe the ethical case and identify parties involved in it.

It is clearly obvious that providing the fix for the customer is unethical and will assist in tax evasion, the correction to the code eventually will let the customer pay less tax, and if discovered will pay penalties, me as a field engineer will be breaking the ACM code of ethics, in which I have to try to accomplish the highest quality as an outcome from my program.

Parties involved would be my employer, the customer, taxation office, the society and me.

2)   Propose multiple solutions and choose the best (most ethical).

The fist extreme solution would be to refuse doing the changes whether by informing the customer or my management, and make a clear point that this will not be done by me.

Second extreme would be by aiding the customer by implementing the fix.

Third solution, which might be tolerant, is by informing my management and let them assign another engineer.

I would go with the first solution, even though it is extreme, but this is the only ethical solution in my opinion, as I will cause less harm to the society.

3)   Will others agree on my solution and I should put aside my own benefits and that others do not influence my solution.

Putting aside my own benefits, which might be in aiding the customer as by that I will keep my job, and not listening to my management if they insisted in providing the fix to the customer, a computing professional would agree with my solution as the unethical case in providing the fix is clear and the harm cause by it is affecting the society not only my employer, the customer or me.

My Action

Based on my knowledge of the program I wrote, my knowledge about taxation rules and discovering that this situation is not a software bug, but it’s an intended misuse of the program to support illegal and unethical action, I will tell the customer that I need to consult my colleague to work on the fix. I will do this because from my position as a field engineer I have to consult my management, and in such case that might require legal advise which shouldn’t be taken over the phone and from the customer site. I will explain to my management the fraud case, and with evidence, prove that what the customer is asking for is illegal, if my direct management didn’t take my advise and decided to order me to fix it, or assign one of my colleagues to fix it, I will choose to leave the company and inform the taxation office about the fraud along with my employer’s action in this case which supports illegal request from the customer.

Taxation Law in Jordan

As per the Jordanian tax law, if a chartered accountant helped a company in avoiding paying taxes, he or she will be punished by a prison not less than a month and not more than two years, or fine not less than 1000 USD and not more than 5000 USD or both. (husseiny, 2010) No clear clarification within this law if an IT engineer, an IT company or any other person will be subject to the penalties or fine. From that I cannot be sure if my company or myself will be criminally liable for aiding this software company in the clear tax fraud case. However, assuming that this law covers any knowledgeable person or any citizen who discovers a tax evasion case (out of courtesy), then we might be liable.

Note: The reference is in Arabic, I tried to find the English version but I couldn’t, Apologies for that.

Due-Diligence

Due-diligence requirement in this case would be:

·      Having proper documentation for the original code and test results for the last revision (before the fix was requested).

·      Having proper evidence from the customer that the last revision was implemented and approved by them.

·      Do proper analysis for the customer’s new requirement and document test results incase the fix applied.

·      Consulting a senior colleague about the findings and proper validation for my evaluation.

·      Document communication about reporting the case with the management that clearly shows my concerns and the effect of applying the fix, and the management’s reply incase of they forced me to apply the fix.

·      Informs Taxation Office officially, attaching original request, test results for the fix if applied, my concerns and communication with my management.

Computer Professional Behavior

·      Computer professional should refuse to do what the customer asked or my management incase they asked to provide the fix to the customer. Providing the fix will put the customer in a harm and the society, penalties might apply if this case was discovered, and if not discovered the tax will not be paid or less amount will be paid which will harm the society.

·      Computer professional should accept the consequences of his decision, provided that he covered himself legally and ethically.

·      Computer’s professional decision should provide less harm to the largest number of people, which is the society in this case.

·      As computer professionals are trusted, I should do proper evaluation for the requested fix, identify all options and conflicts may arise and should report any violation.

Fulfilling Customer Request

Producing the code as requested by the customer or management is not enough and will not fix the problem, it might fix the issue they reported, however it will lead to a bigger problem, which will result in faulty tax, and harm the society.

References:

Anderson, R., Johnson, D., Gotterbarn, D. and Perrolle, J., (1993) ‘Using the New ACM Code Of Ethics in Decision Making’, Communication of the ACM 1993/ Vo.36,  No.2, [Online], Available from: http://www.acm.org/about/p98-anderson.pdf  (Accessed 22 March 2011)

Gibbs, M. (2007), 'Wiretapping, whistleblowing and IT ethics', Network World, 12 November, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, [Online], Available from:

http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/ehost/detail?sid=1396fc9b-1d53-4b0b-8a18-31e38bc47055%40sessionmgr10&vid=1&hid=19&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=buh&AN=27511865 (Accessed 22 March 2011)

Husseiny, K. (2010), ‘Taxation Law in Jordan’, [Online], Available from: http://site.iugaza.edu.ps/khusseiny/files/2010/02/fine.ppt

 (Accessed 22 March 2011)




Mehafdi, M. (2004), ‘The Ethics of International Transfer Pricing’ Journal of Business Ethics, V. 28, Number 4, 365-381, DOI: 10.1023/A:1006353027052, [Online], Available from: http://www.springerlink.com.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/content/k803jr33250k02t2/

(Accessed 22 March 2011)