Reflection on Integrity Management While Engaging with Third Parties in the Construction and Civil Engineering Industry

This article aims to investigate the integrity-related risks for companies engaging with third parties in the construction and civil engineering industry. The business partner compliance process of a multinational construction engineering company is assessed through internal interviews with integrity officers per business sector and per region in a static and dynamic strategy framework. The actual process is the internal evaluation of a ready-made tool bought from a service supplier that assesses how the risks related to corruption are covered in order to determine the level of due diligence necessary when engaging with a specific third party. This study finds that companies must involve their own experts to improve integrity tools. Collecting expert opinions on risk is necessary to allow an improved understanding of the scope of the tool. This study reflects on new ways for improving the integrity tool and demonstrates the necessity to cover risks not solely associated with corruption and bribery, but also with human rights, conflict of interest, antitrust and competition, as well as compliance with regulations to fully protect a company's integrity. (C) 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.