What is a conflict of interest?
When making decisions at work, it is critical you’re only influenced by genuine and relevant factors. A conflict of interest occurs when your own interests clash with your responsibility to act in the best interest of your agency or the APS.
A conflict of interest may be:
- Real: occurs where there is a conflict between the public duty and personal interests of an employee that improperly influences the employee in the performance of their duties.
- Apparent: occurs where it appears an employee's personal interests could be seen to improperly influence the performance of their duties, but this is not in fact the case.
The appearance of a conflict can be just as damaging to public confidence as a real conflict of interest.
To ensure integrity, the APS Code of Conduct (the Code) requires employees to take reasonable steps to avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, in connection with their employment.
Failing to effectively manage conflicts of interest can lead to improper decision-making. Public and Government trust in the APS is based on the understanding that our decisions are made, and perceived to be made, on proper grounds, for legitimate reasons and without bias.
How can HR professionals help manage conflicts?
While managing conflict of interest is the shared responsibility of all APS employees, HR professionals are responsible for:
- Providing awareness training
Providing conflict of interest awareness training provides all staff with the understanding of their responsibilities from day one. Training can include:
- induction training for new starters
- yearly mandatory all staff training
- webinars and modules, for example explaining the difference between real and apparent conflicts using real life examples
- Maintaining agency records
Designing and maintaining a system to register conflicts will allow you to manage them properly. Generally, disclosures can be held on the employee’s personal record with those made for the purpose of a decision also copied to the file relating to that decision. When designing or maintaining the system, you will need to:
- ensure disclosures are managed in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and retained in accordance with the Archives Act 1983
- monitor disclosures to ensure they remain current, design internal controls or an external audit
- bring any serious real or apparent conflicts of interest to the attention of your agency head.
Once conflicts are registered, a risk-based conflict management plan will allow you to ensure identified conflicts do not interfere with your agency’s business activities or reputation.
- Finalising an annual report
In addition to any reporting requirements unique to your agency, it is best practice to provide an integrity-related report to your agency’s governance committees to directly inform agency decision making processes on at least an annual basis. This report should include a broad range of data to inform integrity measurement, coupled with analysis which monitors changes over time and supports the identification of integrity risks.
Activities with a heightened risk
Any activities that can deliver a financial or other benefit to an individual or organisation may raise conflict of interest concerns. However, there are some activities with a heightened risk that should be closely reviewed, these include:
- Procurement and recruitment: procuring goods or services, tendering for and managing contracts, engaging and promoting employees, making appointments to statutory positions
- Regulating individual or business activities: inspecting, regulating or monitoring standards, businesses, equipment or premises
- Distributing goods, services, or funds: providing a service, allocating grants of public funds, allocating subsidies, financial assistance, concessions, or other relief
- Making binding decisions: issuing determinations on matters, passing biding judgements, exercising statutory powers, voting as a member of a board or committee.
More information is available here.