Managing conflicts of interest
Where a conflict cannot be avoided, school staff must actively manage the conflict to protect the public interest from influence by a private interest.
Where the department, school or public might also benefit from circumstances that involve a conflict of interest (for example, discounts on goods or services), the conflict of interest must still be declared and steps taken to manage its impact. With any conflict of interest, there is the potential that the personal benefit involved can create perceptions of corruption.
School staff must develop a conflict of interest management plan as part of their conflict of interest declaration which is required to be approved by their manager/principal. The management plan is part of the conflict of interest declaration on eduPay.
Management plans are a risk mitigation strategy and should address:
- how public duties impacted by the conflict of interest will be performed
- the communication of the conflict of interest and relevant management strategies.
Management strategies
Staff members must develop a conflict of interest management plan as part of their eduPay conflict of interest declaration. This must be approved by the manager or principal.
The conflict of interest management plan is designed to detail what action will be taken to reduce the integrity risk associated with the conflict of interest. A conflict of interest management plan should seek to address:
- how the public duties that are impacted by the conflict will be modified to reduce or eliminate the risk factors identified
- how the staff member will communicate the conflict and relevant management strategies to the relevant people.
School staff must monitor and review their conflict of interest declaration and management plan periodically – at least every 12 months – and in response to any changes in circumstances or risks to ensure that the plan remains effective. Employees who have submitted a conflict of interest declaration will receive an eduPay reminder when a review is due.
Conflict of interest management plans often involve the implementation of one or more of the following risk mitigation strategies, depending on the circumstances of the conflict and the identified risks.
Record and monitor
The conflict of interest is officially declared and recorded.
Relevant principals, managers and school staff will only be advised of the conflict on a ‘need to know’ basis to support ongoing monitoring of the situation to ensure the conflict does not come into contact with or influence public duties.
The ‘record and monitor’ conflict of interest management strategy is most appropriate for certain potential or perceived conflicts only, where the possibility of a future conflict of interest may require constant monitoring for changes in circumstances that may lead to an actual conflict.
Where changing circumstances result in the level of risk increasing, additional strategies (such as restrict or remove) may be implemented to appropriately address the conflict.
For example:
You are a principal and you like to volunteer at a well-known local community organisation on the weekends and during their school holidays.
You make a conflict of interest declaration to declare your interest and ongoing involvement in the organisation, along with a ‘record and monitor’ conflict of interest management plan to continuously monitor opportunities for the community organisation to intersect with your duties as principal of your school.
Restrict
Some restrictions may be placed on the school staff’s duties where a private interest intersects with their public duties. For example:
- limiting involvement in discussions relating to the private interest to observation-only
- restricting sole decision-making responsibilities about matters relating to the private interest, or restricting the staff member from being present when key discussions are being had or decisions are being made
- restricting access to available information about matters that intersect with a private interest.
The use of the restriction strategy may still allow involvement in implementation of decisions made by others that relate to the conflicted duties.
The ‘restrict’ conflict of interest management strategy can be used in perceived and potential conflict of interests where appropriate, as well as in low-risk actual conflict of interests where an employee’s level of involvement is not likely to influence the decision or outcome or where the participation of the school staff member in certain duties that are related to the private interest is not likely to lead to perceptions of influence.
For example:
You are a business manager and you work in the same school as your daughter, who is one of the teachers on staff. You process the payroll of all staff, as well as other staff administration duties including assisting with leave requests.
Your conflict of interest management plan has been developed to allow processing of general payroll tasks for your daughter, but restricts the performance of some atypical payroll duties, including processing of reimbursements and checking medical certificates to cover absences.
Remove
A school staff member with a conflict of interest is completely removed from any involvement or performance of duties relating to the subject matter of the conflict. This may include removing:
- all decision-making responsibility relating to the matter
- any opportunity to influence decision-making or considerations of others relating to the matter
- ability to access information about the matter, including participation in discussions and access to documents.
The ‘remove’ conflict of interest management strategy should be used in high-risk perceived and potential conflicts where the impact of involvement could have a detrimental effect on perception of a process or decision made by the department or school. It should also be the starting point for consideration of all actual conflicts of interest.
For example:
You are a principal who has a family member working at the school. As their line manager, you are responsible for managing all aspects of your family member’s employment, including pay, leave, performance, professional development, allocation of duties, and complaint and conduct management.
Your conflict of interest management plan involves you giving up the responsibility for all of these tasks.
Recruit
An impartial staff member is engaged to oversee partial or full responsibility for the duty giving rise to the conflict.
If a ‘recruit’ conflict of interest management strategy is used, it must be discussed with a principal or manager before implementing in order to identify a suitable individual to assume responsibility for the duty. While a staff member within the school or outside the school (from a neighbouring school or the region) may be selected, a subordinate of the conflicted school staff member would, in most cases, not be appropriate or effective in mitigating the risk of influence in favour of the private interest.
The recruit strategy is often combined with the restrict or remove strategies, and can involve the independent third party being engaged to:
- provide independent decision-making, assurance or probity advice
- perform an assistance and oversight role with the conflicted individual
- oversee an entire work duty which would normally belong to the conflicted individual.
For example:
Your family member works at your school. As their line manager, you are responsible for managing all aspects of your family member’s employment, including pay, leave, performance, professional development, allocation of duties, and complaint and conduct management.
Your conflict of interest management plan involves you giving up the responsibility for all of these tasks (as per the ‘remove’ strategy) and elevates decision-making to the school’s SEIL. Based on the risk factors present, the allocation of daily duties was determined to be appropriate to delegate to your assistant principal.
Relinquish/resolve
Sometimes, a conflict of interest cannot be adequately managed to mitigate the risk to the public interest.
In these cases, it may be necessary for:
- school staff to relinquish their private interest (where it is possible to do so)
- the principal or manager to explore alternative resolutions to mitigate the risk posed by the conflict.
For example:
You are a new teacher recruited to a graduate position at a school. Through university you were making some money tutoring students, including at the school you are now employed.
As you now have public duties that involve teaching children the curriculum, your tutoring of students at the school is in direct conflict with your new public duties and could influence the way you perform your role as a teacher.
Accordingly, you relinquish your private tutoring role to focus on your teaching practice, which effectively resolves the conflict of interest.
Proportionality to the risk level
Any conflict of interest management plan should be proportionate to the level of risk posed by the conflict. This helps to ensure that a staff member’s ability to perform their public duties is not unnecessarily inhibited.
The risk factors that may influence the way a conflict of interest needs to be managed include:
- authority and influence – the level of influence a staff member has in any activity or decision-making
- work responsibilities – the public duties or tasks that could be influenced or affected by the conflict
- nature of private interest – the benefit that could be received or achieved as a result of the conflict
- duration – the length of time that the conflict can be expected to be active for (that is, short-term, long-term or ongoing)
- consequences of conflict – the possible effects if the conflict were to not be managed appropriately
- public perception – the reasonable perception of a fair-minded colleague or member of the public of the situation, including the ability of a proposed conflict of interest management plan to mitigate the risks of influence posed by the conflict.
Alternative resolutions
Sometimes, there may be no management strategy that will effectively and proportionately mitigate the risks associated with the conflict of interest. In those cases, the relevant principal or manager may need to explore alternative resolutions for the conflict of interest.
Alternative resolutions may involve:
- the school staff member taking leave
- alteration of expected work duties (including transfer to another role).
Alternative resolutions should only be considered by principals or managers where operational or business needs are able to accommodate the proposed resolution, and where applicable legislative and contractual provisions allow.
In some cases, if school staff are unable or unwilling to relinquish a private interest that cannot be appropriately managed, termination of employment subject to a misconduct process may be necessary. The department will manage this consistent with public sector employment principles and standards, as well as any other applicable employment contracts, agreements or legislation.
For more information visit: Managing Conduct and Unsatisfactory Performance in the Teaching Service.
Disagreement over management strategies for a conflict of interest
If a staff member disagrees with the conflict of interest management strategies suggested by their principal or manager to effectively manage the conflict, the conflict of interest management plan cannot be approved.
Managers and principals can:
- discuss the details of their employee’s conflict of interest and proposed management plan with their manager to gain an additional perspective as to what is a reasonable and proportionate plan to manage the identified risks
- contact the Conduct and Integrity Division on 03 7022 5400 or at integrity.enquiries@education.vic.gov.au for specialist advice on the how the Conflict of interest policy intends to apply in the unique circumstances of the conflict. This may help to give ideas for additional management strategies that could be employed to resolve the conflict
- consider alternative resolutions for the conflict of interest as described in the policy, if no resolution can be found at this point This can include:
- requiring the school staff member to take leave for the duration of the conflict (if it is possible or reasonable to do so)
- changing the school staff member’s position description (including classification, if necessary) to remove duties that give rise to the conflict. Managers and principals should contact Schools HR on 1800 641 943 for further advice
- transferring school staff to another role within the department to remove duties that give rise to the conflict. Managers and principals should contact Schools HR on 1800 641 943 for advice.
Commencing misconduct proceedings with the potential outcome of termination of employment will only occur if:
a school staff member cannot or will not relinquish the private interest giving rise to the conflict
a suitable conflict of interest management plan cannot be agreed upon
the employee refuses other alternative resolutions proposed.
Further specialist support can be sought from the Conduct and Integrity Division if required: call 03 7022 5400 or email integrity.enquiries@education.vic.gov.au
School staff can:
- contact Conduct and Integrity Division on 03 7022 5400 or at integrity.enquiries@education.vic.gov.au for specialist advice on how the Conflict of interest policy intends to apply in the unique circumstances of their conflict of interest. This may help to give ideas for additional management strategies that could be employed to resolve the conflict
- submit a management action grievance with the Merit Protection Boards to request a review of the management decision to not approve the proposed conflict of interest management plan. This can also be done if the school staff member does not believe that their private interest constitutes a conflict of interest in the first instance. For more information refer to: Merit Protection Boards.
Drafting a conflict of interest management plan
When entering a proposed conflict of interest management plan into the conflict of interest declaration in eduPay, staff will be asked to describe the management strategies that they will put in place to manage the associated risks.
A strong conflict of interest management plan is descriptive and addresses each of the risks that the staff member identifies based on the details of their private interest and the duties likely to be impacted.
Staff can use their earlier conflict of interest declaration as a way to itemise the management strategies they need to employ for each public duty affected.
The details of a conflict of interest management plan may need to be updated over time, due to the:
- nature of the private interest changing
- role duties changing
- management strategies no longer being suitable to manage the risk associated with the conflict.
If this is the case, the staff member must close their existing conflict of interest declaration and management plan and make a new declaration that reflects the current details of the conflict and the management strategies proposed.
Reviewed 03 March 2025