Gifts, Benefits and Hospitality

Definitions

Authorised delegate
Nominated school staff assigned the responsibility to consider and approve proposed acceptance decisions within declarations of gift, benefit and hospitality offers. Authorised delegates’ responsibilities are non-delegable.

Benefits
Benefits include preferential treatment, privileged access, favours or other advantage offered to an individual. They may include invitations to sporting, cultural or social events, access to discounts and loyalty or rewards programs and promises of a new job.

The value of benefits may be difficult to define in dollars, but as they are valued by the individual, they may be used to influence the individual’s behaviour.

Business associate
An individual or body that the school has, or plans to establish, some form of business relationship with, or who may seek commercial or other advantage by offering gifts, benefits or hospitality.

Ceremonial gifts
Ceremonial gifts are official gifts provided as part of the culture and practices of communities and government, within Australia or internationally. Ceremonial gifts are usually provided when conducting business with official delegates or representatives from another organisation, community or foreign government.

Ceremonial gifts are the property of the department, irrespective of value. If appropriate to accept a ceremonial gift, it must be accepted by school staff on behalf of the school, not accepted personally. The receipt of ceremonial gifts must be recorded on the register but does not need to be published online.

Conflict of interest
Conflicts may be:

• actual – there is a real conflict between an employee’s public duties and private interests
• potential – an employee has private interests that could conflict with their public duties. This refers to circumstances where it is foreseeable that a conflict may arise in future and steps must be taken now to mitigate that future risk
• perceived – the public or a third party could reasonably form the view that an employee’s private interests could improperly influence their decisions or actions, now or in the future.

Consumed offer
A gift, benefit or hospitality offer is regarded as consumed when it has been accepted prior to approval and it is not possible to return it.

Days
Days in this policy are working days. School holidays are not counted as working days for declarations in schools.

Declaration
The documented disclosure of an offer and the recipient’s decision, which includes all pertinent details to enable the authorised delegate to assess the recipient’s decision.

Donations
Gifts given from or received by schools, typically for charitable purposes or to benefit a cause. They impose no obligations on the receiving organisation and offer little or no rights or benefits to the provider. Similarly, donations to schools are not considered gifts, benefits or hospitality and their administration does not fall under this policy.

Schools must refuse donations (monetary or gifts) from current or potential suppliers that may be perceived as influencing future procurement decisions.

Fundraising and collections
Fundraising undertaken by schools, or on behalf of the department with its prior consent, is permitted under this policy, provided it complies with the department’s Fundraising Activities (including fetes) policy.

Gift of appreciation (teaching service only)
An offer from or on behalf of a parent, carer or student made to members of the teaching service, intended to express appreciation of their contribution to the education of a student or students. Where the estimated value is $100 or less, the gift of appreciation is considered token and does not need to be declared. A gift with an estimated or actual value above $100 is considered non-token and must be declared.

Gifts
Gifts are free or discounted items or services and any item or service that would generally be seen by the public as a gift. These include items of high value (for example, artwork, jewellery, or expensive pens), low value (for example, small bunch of flowers), consumables (for example, chocolates) and services (for example, painting and repairs). Fundraising by public sector organisations that is consistent with relevant legislation and any government policy is not prohibited under the minimum accountabilities.

Hospitality
Hospitality is the friendly reception and entertainment of guests. Hospitality may range from light refreshments at a business meeting to expensive restaurant meals as well as sponsored travel and accommodation.

Host
The person, office holder or organisation which authorises an event. Responsibilities of a public sector host include initiating the event and approving decisions, for example in relation to cost, selecting invitees, ensuring the event runs smoothly and meets its objectives, and facilitating relationships between invitees.

Immediate family
School staff’s partner, sibling, child or parent.

Legitimate business benefit
A legitimate business benefit furthers the conduct of official business, educational or other legitimate organisational goals, or promotes and supports government policy objectives and priorities.

When considering the benefit, define in tangible language how the school or department’s objectives will be advanced. If you cannot or the only benefit is ‘networking’ or ‘relationship building’, then it is likely the benefits are personal and not business benefits.

For example, an education conference ticket so a school staff member can enhance their understanding of curriculum is more likely to be of legitimate business benefit to the school than the offer of hospitality at a corporate box at the football for networking.

Non-token offer
A non-token offer is a gift, benefit or hospitality that is, or may be perceived to be by the recipient, the person making the offer or by the wider community, of more than inconsequential value. All offers valued at $50 or more are non-token offers and must be recorded in the Registry System (staff login required), except for specific offers received by a person employed in a Victorian government school, as defined under ‘token offer’.

Procurement
Procurement refers to all the business processes associated with purchasing goods and services under the Financial Management Act 1994, or construction-relates services and infrastructure under the Project Development and Construction Management Act 1994, spanning the entire lifespan from the identification of needs to the end of a service contract or the end of the useful life and subsequent disposal of an asset. It also includes the organisational and governance frameworks that underpin the procurement function.

Public official
Public official has the same meaning as section 4 of the Public Administration Act 2004 and includes public sector employees, statutory office holders and directors of public entities.

Public register
A public register is a record, preferably digital, of a subset of the information contained in a register, for publication as required by the minimum accountabilities. Guidance regarding the information that should be published is provided in the Management of offers of gifts, benefits and hospitality guidance chapter.

Public sector
As defined within the Public Administration Act 2004. The public sector comprises:

• the public service
• public entities
• special bodies.

Recipient
School staff to whom offers of gifts, benefits and hospitality are made.

Register
The department-wide record of all declarable gifts, benefits and hospitality.

Registry system
The department-wide information technology application (staff login required) used by school staff to declare and approve offers of gifts, benefits and hospitality and provide reports.

School council
School councillors are required to monitor and oversee offers and provision of gifts, benefits and hospitality within schools, and at least annually review the school register for compliance with the policy.

School staff
Members of the teaching service, school councillors and school council employees, and contractors.

Spam offers
Spam offers, junk email and similar offers made available to the public, refers to unsolicited messages, usually sent in bulk to large numbers of recipients, that are not specifically targeted to school staff in their public sector role. A generic bulk email invitation may address school staff by name but still be considered spam. Personalised and individual invitations, however, must be treated as general offers and declared if non-token.

Sponsored travel
Sponsored travel is an offer to fund, wholly, or in part, school staff travel and other work-related costs. This includes sponsored transport, accommodation, meals, conferences and industry tours. Sponsored travel must be declined unless a legitimate business benefit for acceptance can be demonstrated.

Sponsorships
The purchase or receipt of rights or benefits, including naming rights, delivered through association with an organisation's products, services or activities. The rights or benefits typically relate to the sponsor's reputation management or communication objectives. In accordance with Guidance 4.2.2, Minister for Finance Standing Directions 2018, sponsorships are not considered gifts, benefits or hospitality and their administration does not fall under this policy.

Supplier code of conduct
A code of conduct issued by the Victorian Government which outlines the minimum ethical standards in behaviour that suppliers will aspire to meet when conducting business with, or on behalf of, the state.

Token offer
A token offer is a gift, benefit or hospitality that is of inconsequential or trivial value to both the person making the offer and the recipient (such as basic courtesy). The minimum accountabilities state that token offers are less than $50.

This does not apply to a person employed under the Education and Training Reform Act 2006 in a Victorian government school, who receives an offer from or on behalf of a parent, guardian, carer or student intended to express appreciation of the person’s contribution to the education of a student or students, in which case it cannot be worth more than $100.

Transfer
The passing of possession or control of a physical item to the department or school.

Victorian public sector organisations
Victorian public sector entities as defined within the Public Administration Act 2004. This does not include Victorian local government organisations.

Voucher
Vouchers (including retail debit cards and gift cards) are a payment facility offered by businesses to consumers.

Cash vouchers are any vouchers that can be ‘universally’ used in the same way as cash can. A financial institution issued debit card, for example, a bank $50 debit card, is a ‘cash’ voucher. The acceptance of cash vouchers is prohibited under this policy.

Non-cash vouchers are vouchers that must be used at specific retailers and cannot be converted to cash. Non-cash vouchers are prohibited under this policy except when they are offered as gift of appreciation to members of the teaching service.