UniSA acknowledges that its staff play valuable and important roles in other organisations and the wider community and that, in some circumstances these personal interests, whether paid or not, could potentially give rise to an actual, perceived or potential conflict of interest. Given the importance of transparency and integrity in all aspects of the University’s operations, the University requires its senior staff to complete a Register of Personal Interests on appointment and to review it at least annually and certainly whenever their personal circumstances change.
Declaring personal interests provides an opportunity for you to consider whether any of your personal interests might give rise to an actual or perceived conflict with your duties with the University and, with the support of your supervisor, to take action to remove or minimise the potential for that to occur.
Registering these interests is made by completing the Register of Personal Interests form (Senior Staff). This form will be acknowledged by the relevant line manager/supervisor who will review any management plan that is required to mitigate or address any actual, perceived or potential conflict of interest. A copy of the form is held in a confidential file attached to the senior staff member’s personal file. All pecuniary and non-pecuniary interest(s) which could give rise to an actual, potential or perceived conflict must be included on the form. The form should be reviewed annually and updated if there are any changes to the register of personal interests.
A personal interest is anything that can have an impact on the staff member, including an impact on people the staff member is related to or associates with. Personal Interests can bring benefit or disadvantage and may be pecuniary (financial) or non-pecuniary (non-financial) in nature.
Examples of personal interests could include but are not limited to;
Importantly, a conflict of interest must still be declared even if the relevant personal interest has already been registered. For example, if a senior staff member has already disclosed that their spouse works for a particular supplier that does business with the University (that is, disclosure of a personal interest), a Declaration of a Conflict of Interest is still required if that business tenders for a contract over which the senior staff member has involvement.
The requirement to complete the Register of Personal Interests is additional to the University’s annual Management Certification process and the annual requirement for all members of the Enterprise Leadership Team (ELT) to declare whether they have had any related party transactions with the University of South Australia (UniSA) during the previous calendar year.
Failure to disclose or avoid a conflict of interest is a breach of this policy and a potential breach of the Staff Code of Conduct and could result in disciplinary action for misconduct/serious misconduct in line with the provisions of the current UniSA Enterprise Agreement.
Any reasonable suspicion of corruption, or serious or systemic misconduct or maladministration resulting from failure to disclose, address or manage conflicts of interest will be reported to the Office of Public Integrity.