The Geological Society Code of Conduct
This Professional Code of Conduct applies to all Members of the Society.
The words used in this professional code shall be as defined under By-Law 1.0 of GSK constitution 2021. Geology is a profession and the privilege of being a professional geologist requires the highest standards of professional integrity and responsibility, as well as professional knowledge.
Principles of the Professional Code of Conduct
- A member shall always discharge duties and shall not commit any act which will have the effect of avoiding or diminishing professional responsibility.
- A member shall at all times be honest in dealings and decisions shall be made with
integrity of purpose. - A member shall at all time be free from corruption.
- A member’s advice shall at all times be impartial.
- A member must never place himself in a position where his/her duties are likely to create a conflict with the professional interest.
- A member shall at all times act in an honorable manner towards professional colleagues.
- A member may only advertise his/her professional services within the guidelines of the statutory bodies regulating the respective profession.
Duties of Members to the Public and Employer
- A member in whatever capacity he is engaged shall exercise his professional skill and judgment to the best of his ability and shall act in all matters towards his clients, employers and others with whom his work is connected in an honorable manner with the best traditions of professional activity in this country.
- A member shall not perform professional work which, he does not believe himself competent to undertake.
- A member shall, whenever called upon to give an opinion in his- professional capacity, give an opinion which is objective and reliable to the best of his knowledge and ability. When his advice is not accepted, a member shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the person overruling or neglecting this advice is aware of any danger which he believes may result from such overruling or neglect.
- A member should only express opinions which are founded upon knowledge and honest
conviction and should never yield to undue and improper pressure to knowingly make
false statements. - A member shall avoid and discourage sensational, exaggerated and unwarranted statements that might induce participation in unsound enterprises and mislead the public.
- A member shall discharge his duties to his employer with complete fidelity
- A member shall not do anything or permit anything under his authority to be done, the probable and involuntary consequences of which in his professional judgment would endanger human life or safety, expose valuable property to the risk of destruction or seriously damage, or needlessly pollute the environment, except where legally authorized to do so in the national or public interest.
- A member shall neither communicate to any third party nor publish any information of a confidential nature concerning the business of a client or his employer, unless required to do so by law.
- A member, without disclosing the fact to his client or employer, shall not be a director, nor have a substantial financial interest in nor be an agent for any company or firm or person carrying on the contracting, consulting or manufacturing business which is or may be involved in the work to which his employment relates,
- A member shall not receive, directly or indirectly, any royalty, gratuity or commission on any patented or protected article or process used on or for the purpose of the work in respect of which he is acting for a client, unless and until such royalty, gratuity or commission has been authorized in writing by that client.
- A member shall not be the medium of payments made on his client’s behalf unless so requested by his client; nor shall he in connection with the work on which he is employed place contracts or orders except with the authority of and on behalf of his client.
- A member retained by one client shall not accept, without that client’s written consent, an engagement by another client if the interests of the two clients in any way conflict.
Duties of Members to other Members
- A member shall not use the advantage of a salaried position to compete unfairly with other Geologists.
- A member shall not knowingly compete unfairly with any other member. There is no objection to advertising provided that this is confined to factual statements for the information of prospective clients in keeping with the dignity of the profession.
- A member shall not maliciously or recklessly injure, or attempt to injure, whether directly or indirectly, the professional reputation or personal or business prospects of any other member.
- A member shall not state as his own knowledge or belief information which he has obtained from another member and shall freely attributes other members as the source of such knowledge or belief.
- A member shall endeavor to cooperate with other geologist in the study of geology and dissemination of ideological knowledge.
Duties of Members to the Society
- A member shall endeavor to ensure that candidates for membership are fit and proper persons to be elected members.
- A member in connection with work in a country other than his own shall order his conduct according to this code of professional conduct, so far as it is applicable, but in those countries where there are recognized standards of professional conduct he shall adhere to them.
- A member shall be found guilty of improper conduct if in the opinion of executive committee he is in breach of this Code of Professional Conduct, or if he is convicted by a competent tribunal of an offence which in the opinion of executive committee renders him unfit to be a member, or if, as a result of having been adjudicated bankrupt, in the opinion of executive committee he is thereby precluded from performing his professional duties in a manner which is consistent with the standard of his profession.