Opinion
“CONFLICT OF INTEREST” is any situation in which personal and/or financial considerations have the potential to influence or compromise professional judgment in the service of the Bank
Conflict of interest arise in the workplace when an employee has competing interests or loyalties that either are, or potentially can be, at odds with the interest of the Bank.
Conflict of interest causes an employee to experience a struggle between diverging interests, points of view, or allegiances and the expectation of the Bank.
What amounts to a conflict situation may not be a conflict in another.
Identifying Conflicts of Interest
• If a Staff enjoys any unearned financial benefit, even a benefit as minor as a free box lunch, conflict of interest may be suspected.
• When a staff’s action can be influenced negatively or positively as a result of to earn any type of benefit..
• Anytime it is perceived that a staff uses his official position to derive personal benefits, it could amount to a conflict of interest after all pertinent relevant facts are analyzed
Examples of Conflicts of interest
❖ Granting loans to companies where Staff double as a Director or has interests
❖ Such patterns may occur (maybe inferred from referrals) in referrals, in the evaluation of or in the EOY assessment of Staff.
❖ A female staff dates a male line manager and reports himwhere she cannot obtain undue advantage on the job.
❖ A Staff represents the Bank as witness in a dispute while accepting tips from litigants who hold the opposing point of view.
❖ A Staff hires his brother-in-law to provide vending services to the Bank lunch areas.
❖ A staff starts a company that provides similar services to similar clients as those of her full time employer (lending to customers).
❖ A Staff who is a member of a Bank employee selection team (a staff who is a member of an employee selection team) fails to disclose that he is related to a job candidate whom the company is considering for a position.
❖ A Staff provides paid consulting services on the weekend to a Bank customer or supplier.
❖ A Staff works part time in the evening for a company that makes a product that competes with the products of Bank.
❖ A member of the Bank board of Directors accepts fees and provides advice to a company that is in direct competition with the Bank on whose board he/she sits.
❖ An HR Staff decides to settle personal scores using internal resources she controls, against a staff.
What to Do About Conflicts of Interest
Avoid, Disclose and Recuse
❖ AVOID: The best thing to do is avoid situations that give rise to conflicts of interest or that even appear to give rise to such conflicts. Avoidance is by far the best strategy.
❖ DISCLOSE: Disclose to the Chief Compliance Officer, Head of HR, Your Line manager or the Manager in charge of the issue.
❖ RECUSE: Pending advice from CCO, remove “yourself” from the activity or the process put in place to determine the outcome of the activity
Why is non-disclosure of conflicts of Interest Bad?
❖ It suppresses transparency
❖ much of the problem with conflicts of interest is not intentional corruption but unintentional bias
❖ Staff reasoning can be easily subsumed into the service of his own interests
❖ A clear gap eventually crystalizes between staff and the Bank interests, this is injurious to the Bank
❖ It could create a snowball effect among staff as it becomes a cankerworm and destroys the Bank from within
Summary
• Staff must carefully consider all circumstances surrounding the offer of a gift or benefit, including the apparent purpose of the donor.(including every possible intent of the giver)
• The transaction may reasonably be viewed by impartial observers and the potential impact on the practice of the professions.
• Preservation of the highest ethical standards is vital to Ecobank.
• Conflicts of interest and even a perception of conflicts of interest, erode the public’s trust in both the Staff and the Bank.
For these reasons, situations of conflict of interest must be avoided whenever possible, and where they cannot be avoided, they must be managed in an open and cooperative way.
Kunle Ajiboye LL.B, B.L, CAM
