The University’s expectations of staff in actively disclosing and managing conflicts of interest, and declaring gifts and benefits are detailed in the Conflict of Interest Policy and this guidance material developed to assist staff in meeting these expectations.
In accordance with the Conflict of Interest Policy, staff must actively assess their circumstances, interests and relationships and use the University’s Conflict of Interest registration form to declare:
Staff must also use the Gifts and Benefits registration form to declare any gifts or benefits (including hospitality) they accept or provide that exceeds $50 in value.
The supervisor’s role is to determine how such conflicts are to be mitigated or managed and to record this using the registration form.
The University acknowledges that conflicts of interest will arise from time to time. It is essential that such conflicts are delcared and managed when they occur.
Conflicts of interest may be actual, potential or perceived. The key to testing if a conflict of interest exists is to ask whether ability to fulfil your duties and responsibilities to the University honestly, impartially and without any improper influence could be affected by a personal or professional interest or relationship, or whether a reasonable person might perceive this to be the case.
Declaring a conflict ensures appropriate transparency and protects both you and the University.
Conflicts of interest — whether actual, potential or perceived — must be identified, declared and managed when they occur.
Declaring a conflict of interest through the University Conflict of Interest registration form provides a way for your supervisor to respond to your proposed strategy for managing the declared conflict.
You should declare conflicts to your supervisor using the University’s Conflict of Interest registration form
If you do not access to the form (or access is highly impractical), you may, by agreement with your supervisor, make a declaration by email or other written form.
If you are unsure if a particular situation, circumstance or relationship creates a conflict of interest, or a perception of a conflict, you should err on the side of caution and make a declaration to your supervisor.
Supervisors must respect the confidentiality of staff declaring a conflict of interest in cases where the declaration is of a personal or sensitive nature.
If the declaration only relates to a committee process, the committee minutes or notes are a sufficient record.
You need to make a declaration via the form if the conflict is relevant to your employment at the University more generally.
The registration form provides a means for supervisors to respond to your proposed strategy for managing the conflict.
The approach to managing conflicts, actual, potential or perceived, will vary depending on each specific situation.
Key strategies to manage a conflict of interest are:
There will be occasions when making a declaration is in itself a sufficient management strategy as this will address any perception of lack of transparency.
See examples of Conflict of Interest and Management Strategies for further guidance.
The following guidance relates to accepting or providing gifts and benefits from/to third parties to staff in their capacity as an employee of the University (as opposed to gifts, donations and bequests that are accepted on behalf of the University). In some cases a supervisor may require that a gift to an individual is treated as a gift to the University rather than being retained by the staff member.
Gifts include the following:
Not all travel is considered a gift for the purposes of requiring declaration and approval. Examples of travel that is not considered a gift include: when the travel is funded as part of a research grant or is paid for by another university/organisation for work falling within the staff member’s normal teaching, research or other employment duties; travel awarded as a prize for academic achievement; travel associated with presentation at a conference of an academic or other professional group where there is an independent conference organising committee and the presentation relates to the staff member’s University employment.
It is customary in some industries to give gifts or offer invitations to events, particularly during the festive season. These must not be accepted if doing so would create a perceived conflict of interest. When such gifts are accepted, either because no perception of conflict would arise or because it would be inappropriate to refuse, staff should consider sharing them amongst the office group where possible. Providing or accepting of such gifts must be delcared via the registration form when the value exceeds $50, and pre-approved if the value is $250 or more or, in the case of gifts of a lower value, where the gift recipient opts to do so in the interests of transparency.
See example of Conflict of Interest Management Strategies for further guidance
If you have any questions contact Governance, Legal and Risk
Sturt Rd, Bedford Park
South Australia 5042
CRICOS Provider: 00114A TEQSA Provider ID: PRV12097 TEQSA category: Australian University
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