The Victorian public needs to be able to trust that the public sector is operating with integrity and impartiality, in a professional and apolitical manner.
If you have a ‘declarable association’, you must declare it in accordance with your employer’s conflict of interest policy.
Your employer’s policy may have stricter requirements about declarable associations than those we publish in this guide. For example:
Always check and follow your employer’s policy.
Some employers have a separate policy on declarable associations.
In this guide we use the term employee to cover:
A declarable association is a current or recent association with a person, group or organisation you are aware or should reasonably suspect of being involved in serious unlawful activity, now or in the past. It is declarable if a conflict of interest exists (actual, potential or perceived).
Your organisation may have a stricter definition
The above definition is used in our conflict of interest model policy. Most organisations follow this approach. But some have a stricter approach.
For example, some organisations require all associations relating to serious unlawful activity to be declared, even if no conflict of interest exists. An organisation sometimes applies this stricter type of requirement if it's vulnerable in this area due to its functions or operating environment.
Always follow your organisation’s policy.
Some examples of serious unlawful activity include:
If your organisation uses the definition in our model policy, an association must be declared if it is a conflict of interest (actual, potential or perceived).
This means it must be declared if it could influence, or reasonably be seen to influence, how you perform your job.
In deciding whether the association is a conflict of interest, some relevant factors to consider are:
Your work role:
Your associate:
Nature of activity:
Potential effect:
You have an ongoing relationship with a family member who has a history of serious offending relating to the illegal sale of drugs.
You must declare this relationship if you are, for example, working on a policy relating to whether or not such drugs should be legalised. This is because the relationship could reasonably be seen as having the potential to influence how you perform your public duties.
If you work in a waste recovery organisation as a budget analyst it is unlikely you will need to declare the relationship. It does not intersect with your job, so unless it could affect your work duties in another way, the relationship is unlikely to be a conflict of interest.
If your organisation has chosen to have a stricter policy that requires all associations linked to serious unlawful activity to be declared, you must do so.
The following example relates to an uncommon but important scenario:
If you have a relationship with a ‘declared organisation’ or ‘declared person’, you must always declare the relationship to your employer.
This is because of the high conflict of interest risk level it poses. It is reasonable for people to believe that your association with the ‘declared organisation’ or ‘declared individual’ may influence how you perform your duties.
Declarations by a court are uncommon. As shown in example 1, the definition of a declarable association in this guide is much wider than this scenario.
Circumstances and relationships do not remain static. If you have a relationship that has the potential to be an association that must be declared under your organisation’s policy check its status:
If in doubt about whether to make a declaration, seek advice from your manager, the integrity officer, or similar source of advice provided by your organisation.
If you have a declarable association, follow the requirements in your organisation’s policy.
Usually:
You can request to lodge your conflict of interest declaration with someone other than your manager. To enquire, contact the human resources manager or other contact specified by your organisation – for example, conflict of interest officer.
The information you provide on your conflict of interest declaration must be treated by your organisation consistent with the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic), the Public Records Act 1973 (Vic), the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) and your organisation’s other obligations, including its conflict of interest policy and the collection notice relating to the declaration form.
The key mitigation strategies in your organisation’s conflict of interest policy are likely to be similar to those in our model policy:
The approved plan should be proportionate to the risk posed by the declarable association.
Sometimes, a declarable association is declared during pre-employment screening.
If this occurs, you must still complete a Conflict of interest – Declaration and Management Plan form:
For more information and advice contact the conflict of interest contacts set out in your organisation’s policy.