TCA Ethical Principles

TCA ETHICAL PRINCIPLES

Article 1
OBJECTIVE

The Ethical Principles of the Turkish Contractors Association (TCA) aim to build the environment of public trust and respect in the construction sector and reinforce the ethical culture in the industry with an emphasis on the basic principles of ethical conduct which TCA members shall comply with when carrying out their professional activities.

The TCA and all of its members believe in supremacy of the principles contained in this document and believe that they should be voluntarily adopted despite the power of the document, supervision and sanctions.

Article 2
SCOPE
The TCA Ethical Principles shall cover TCA and its bodies, TCA members and their representative offices, construction sites at home and abroad including legal entities and employees.  

Article 3
DEFINITIONS
Definitions of some words and expressions given in this document are as follows:

a. Turkish Contractors Association (TCA)
The Turkish Contractors Association is a non-governmental organization established by the members operating mainly in contracting sector aiming to build more developed and prosperous Turkey and world. The Association acts in conformity with the legislation of the Republic of Turkey; is aware of the responsibility imposed by the word "Turkey" in the Association's name; is bound by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; promotes freedom of thought, conscience and initiative at all platforms; protects public interest in all the activities.

TCA Mission
TCA carries out works in order to ensure technical, technological, financial, legal and economic developments in the construction sector and finds fair solutions to the sectoral problems; supports the increase of competitiveness of its members; executes works to improve economic efficiency of the sector and reach sustainable development; creates science-based policies; shares information on its works with relevant decision-making bodies, members and sector stakeholders; creates and develops business ethics (ethical principles) of the construction sector and ensures the adoption and implementation of these principles by its members; in order to maintain sectoral growth, develops communication and cooperation among its members in conformity with the business ethics (ethical principles); defends rights of its members; shares with public when required opinions, suggestions and policies formed in accordance with its mission and creates "think tanks" for this purpose.

b. Member/Members
Member/members are legal or real persons whose core activity is contracting, who have become eligible for the TCA Membership and have signed the "Membership Declaration". In addition to the legal personality of the defined company, the word "Member" also covers the company's representative offices, construction sites, all bodies - legal entities and employees at home and abroad.

c. Customs/Moral Values/Ethics
Customs: means traditions, habits, practices, good behaviours.

Moral Values: generally shared set of values, accepted principles of life and behaviour of the particular society in particular time period.

Ethics: The term comes from the Greek word "ethos", which means "character", having been used in Turkish language for the last 50 years and stands for "rational, optimal and appropriate code of behaviour expected from the group to which individual belongs".

At present day, the words Customs, Moral Values and Ethics overlap with each other and are considered to be almost synonyms in Turkish as well as in other languages. However, in general Customs are established according to the local cultures and communities, Moral Values are formed mainly as a part of era, society, religion and culture, whereas the concept of Ethics refer to the universally accepted moral values which developed independently from time, geography, religion and culture according to different professions and disciplines.

 Article 4
ADHERENCE TO OBJECTIVES AND MISSION
The mission of the members cannot contradict with the TCA's mission. The members support the TCA mission, make intellectual, financial and personal contributions to the TCA activities and behave in a way to develop the world civilization and improve the welfare of the communities.

Article 5
DIGNITY AND CONFIDENCE
TCA and its bodies provide services with required diligence and care, strictly avoiding delays, taking sides and double standards so as to give confidence to its members and earn their respect.

The members are responsible to ensure that the services and works provided to the community are of the quality and standards required by the profession of contracting. They shall not deliberately and intentionally provide defective services and make mistakes at work and carry responsibility to fulfill their services and works in accordance with the law. In case of unintentional damages caused to the clients despite all carefulness, the members shall try their best to fix these damages in good faith.

TCA and its members shall avoid behaviour which may damage and undermine the public confidence and respect to the contracting profession and lead to unfair competition and unjust gain.

Article 6
WORKING ENVIRONMENT AND RIGHTS OF THE EMPLOYEES
TCA and its members shall ensure healthy working environment to its employees, respect their personalities, support their personal development and provide educational opportunities appropriate to their professions and duties. They shall not force the employees to commit illegal acts, perform works above their physical and mental capacities and discriminate or favour them on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, political stance and beliefs.

Members shall share with employees their visions and views on the corporate future; organize corporate working environments when required in order to listen and evaluate work-related recommendations, criticism and complaints of the employees.

Members are responsible to ensure safety and confidentiality of all "personal data" of the employees.  

Article 7
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS AND POLITICAL PARTIES
TCA and its members cannot employ active members of the parliament, ministers or government officials. (Government officials working in the companies with public partnership is an exception)

Article 8
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AND SCARCE RESOURCES
TCA and its members believe that nature is not only a resource to be unconsciously consumed for the sake of humanity, but beyond that it is a mentor to be protected and be inspired by to meet the needs of people. For this reason, members shall act carefully in order not to harm natural, cultural and historical values by their activities and shall voluntarily comply with all legal arrangements on environmental protection, support development of environmental friendly technologies and spread their applications. Members shall also avoid all kind of activities which lead to immoderate consumption of raw materials and energy and unconscious extravagance and may cause the climate change.

Article 9
RESPONSIBILITY FOR FAIR DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION AND USE OF KNOWLEDGE
TCA and its members shall pay attention to the authenticity principle when acquiring, using and storing information on business activities.

Members shall provide credible and accurate information to the Turkish Contractors Association; shall not use acquired information about other members against them and shall not disclose and use information about clients and business partners without their consent or legal obligation to do so.

Members shall not try to get confidential information which does not belong to their field of activity by applying to the methods disapproved by society and business ethics.

Article 10
ACCEPTING AND GIVING GIFTS
Any good or benefit of high economic or moral value, directly or indirectly offered and accepted, which may affect impartiality, performance, decision or task execution of the individuals or organizations falls within the scope of gift.

The basic principle of TCA and its members in this context is not to accept and give gifts of unlawful nature.

However, material donations made as a contribution to some public institutions, non-governmental organizations and organizations carrying out their activities by taking donations, which can be used in the public service, recorded in the inventory book of the organization, registered by both sides with its monetary value in legal books is not considered to be a gift.

Article 11
RESPONSIBILITY FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF ETHICAL PRINCIPLES BY MEMBERS
Members carry out works in order to ensure implementation of the TCA Ethical Principles in their organizations, develop their unique ethical principles and convert them into written culture.

Article 12
APPLICATION RIGHT
In case members or third legal persons and individuals have clear evidence of unprofessional conduct of any of the TCA members incompliant with the TCA Ethical Principles, he/she can submit an application to the TCA about the member who exhibits unprofessional behaviour incompatible with the TCA Ethical Principles giving clear evidence of unprofessional conduct and stating his/her full name and address.

Applications can be made only in writing. The applicant is obliged to present his full address and sign the application. Applications without address and signature will not be processed. Information in the application concerning the unprofessional conduct incompliant with the ethical principals shall be clear and as detailed as possible. Available documentation supporting the claim shall be added to the application. The claim of unprofessional conduct, the name of the member or member's representative complaining, the time and place of the claimed unprofessional conduct shall be stated in the application in a concrete way.

Delivery date of application to the TCA is considered to be the application date. Each application shall be officially recorded with date and registration number. The application and its annexes shall be stored in the TCA archive.

Article 13
DECISION OF THE TCA BOARD OF ETHICS
The Board of Ethics meet upon separate or joint request of the General Assembly and the Board of Directors and forms its opinion on the issues requested to be investigated following examination of the case delivered by these Boards, related to unprofessional conduct incompliant with the Association's objectives, statute, professional ethical principles and internal regulations.

The Board of Ethics gives to the member 30 (thirty) days for oral or written defense in cases given above. In case of failure to submit defense within this period, the Board of Ethics completes its investigation in accordance with available information and evidence and expresses its opinion taken by majority decision to the Board of Directors.

All investigations by the Board of Ethics shall be conducted on the basis of the principle of confidentiality. No statement except "The issue has been taken for investigation by the Board of Ethics " shall be made to any authority or mass media. The decision of investigation cannot enter into force without approval by the Board of Directors and cannot be announced orally or in writing.

Conclusive Decision taken by the Board of Ethics following investigations shall not have any legal support in any court and parties won't be able to use these investigations or decision as legal documentation. Decisions taken by the Board of Ethics are rather related to professional reputation and protect the dignity of the construction sector.

TCA Ethical Principles (pdf version)