Professional Ethics & Standards Flashcards
7 cards from real CCC practice questions. Tap to flip, then mark Knew It or Still Learning — missed cards come back until you master them.
Read the first 7 Professional Ethics & Standards flashcards as text
During a bid evaluation, a contractor offers a cost consultant tickets to a major sporting event. The most ethical course of action is to:
Answer: Decline the gift because it could influence or appear to influence professional judgment
Gifts from parties with a stake in the consultant's decisions should be declined to avoid actual or perceived bias.
A cost consultant's report will be used to secure project financing. Including optimistic productivity assumptions the consultant knows are unrealistic constitutes:
Answer: Misrepresentation, a violation of professional ethics
Knowingly presenting unrealistic assumptions to influence financing decisions is a form of misrepresentation prohibited by ethics codes.
Which situation requires a certified cost consultant to disclose a potential conflict of interest before accepting an engagement?
Answer: The consultant owns stock in the contractor whose claim they will evaluate
A financial interest in a party being evaluated is a direct conflict that must be disclosed before accepting the work.
A junior estimator under a CCC's supervision produces an estimate with unsupported assumptions. The CCC signs off without review due to deadline pressure. This primarily violates the duty of:
Answer: Professional diligence and responsible oversight
Certifying work without adequate review breaches the supervising professional's duty of diligence and responsibility for work issued under their name.
In marketing their services, a cost consultant may ethically:
Answer: Describe factual qualifications, certifications, and verifiable project experience
Advertising must be truthful and factual; guarantees of outcomes and inflated or misappropriated credentials are unethical.
A consultant discovers mid-engagement that completing the client's requested scope would require them to violate a building cost disclosure regulation. The consultant should:
Answer: Inform the client that the request cannot be performed lawfully and propose a compliant alternative
Professionals must not knowingly participate in unlawful acts and should advise clients toward lawful alternatives.
Two consulting firms agree privately not to compete for each other's clients in a region. From an ethics standpoint, this arrangement is:
Answer: Improper because it undermines fair competition and may violate law
Market allocation agreements suppress fair competition and can be both unethical and illegal under antitrust law.