Inspecting Project Materials

The fact you mentioned are

- As per approved design and documents, the contractor has violated almost all the possible areas.

- This is a major nonconformance and calls for rejection of the supply (in fact in our company the supplier will be blacklisted)

- The condition and the state of your company is only known to you. But you have some apphrehension.

In this condition it is difficult to advice you but you have very limited choice

- reject the material and then ?

- Accept the material, and then pray that when the system fails you are not around and not traceable. Since the enquiry is definitely going to point fingers towards the inspector who have accepted the substandard material.

I advice you

a) put the material on hold (quarantine)

b) Raise a non-conformance report/note whatever your system calls for.

c) Let a committee/ project designer decide the fate. Unfortunately nobody can accept these nonconformances and again it is you who will be castigated for bringging the fact to light.

That case at least you will be a bit safer than taking a decision to reject at your end - which any way I feel should be done- (though not the users and remember it is a fire fighting system).

Out of all these I feel the most serious is (3) and check the reduction in wall thickness and also for the used elbows.

The test reports etc are serious but can be overcome by re-testing upto certain extent (though most of the standards may not permit it but at least your conscience will be clear)

You may lose your job.

Or you may keep it and know that substandard materials were used and then be prosecuted when the system fails down the road. If people die, your malfeasance will be seen as their proximate cause of death. If it leaks, you will be sued as engineer of record for damages. WHAT WE DO AS ENGINEERS COUNTS.

Is this a difficult decision to make?

Does your work Protect people or potentially put them in harms way?

This requires no thought for me. As the engineer of record, i would stop the project and disclose the faults to the authorities after I have disclosed them to my management, if they continue to go forward.

Corruption stops when engineers stand up for their work.

People can die when we don't.

milo

Does the police officer quit when he realizes the bad guys have guns?

You already know the answer. You already know what needs to be done. You have three choices, and all pose a risk to your job.

1. Reject the nonconforming material, as per your responsibilities, and accept the associated costs, but keep your personal integrity. you may lose the job for political reasons.

2. Accept the nonconforming material, and face the eventual failure of the job, and the associated costs and loss of integrity. you may lose the job when you become the fall guy. (this is the worst choice imho, as you lose everything)

3. Quit the job, keep your integrity, but lose the income.

there may be other options, but we don't have enough information to make proposals.

"Quality is conformance to requirements." Philip B. Crosby

good luck,

Chris

"Does the police officer quit when he realizes the bad guys have guns?'

Well said Chrisg288!

milo

Hi...

In any other place such a supply would have been rejected outright. This is not possible in Nigeria. I know it is a difficult place to work for honest people as there is rampant corruption at all levels. Some of my friends who returned from there speak about it. With such mafias operating openly there is very little an individual can do on his own. You can try to gather support from stronger government sources who can enforce the law. Good Luck!!!

Who is the customer? Explain the situation to the customer, and ask them if the materials provided are satisfactory. If they say yes, then get that in writing, and document the acceptance of the materials with that. (provided that catastrophic failure of the equipment will not kill people. If that is the case, customer approval will not be sufficient to assuage your guilt in the matter.)

If people are going to die from the poor materials/construction, then either quit, or do your job, but do not let the poor materials pass.

What would you expect if you were the customer?

Chris

Is Prossible and probabily that you have to go ahead. You have the material and now is your problem. In other Country, NCRs, rejections, change orders........ but there. Your line is FW, that´s ussually no more than 150PSI (Work pressure), is water, and is going to be place underground. Wacth welding consumables and welders (Very bad experience there) Keep your eye in the coating for underground. Next time, procurement inspection before delivery from shop. Good Luck

When there is fire there will not be any water available as it will leak from the pipes and joints. God Bless You.

Suresh Sharma.

Try this link: www.maxxon.com/gyp-crete/data

This product is widely used with radiant floor heating as a thermal mass, and for fire protection in apartments and motels.

Everyone is correct. If these materials are required for use, put the nonconformances if writing and have the client, your manager, and the contractor to sign for acceptance. As previously stated when there is a fire there may be no water available to put it out. Also I have seen problems with ERW or welded (seamed) pipe in fire water systems before, due to lack of flow and corrosion affecting the weld seams and there heat affected zones.

Good luck, and CYA.

Rick