How we review, identify and monitor conflicts of interest

Reviewing conflicts of interest disclosed to us

Following award of the contract

When contracts are awarded, DCJ contract managers are notified of any conflicts of interest identified during procurement, including all details and any conditions of acceptance.

We may review conflicts of interest disclosed during procurement following execution of the contract.

• As agreed in the contract with us, we may direct you to make changes to the management strategy proposed during procurement, to ensure we’re satisfied it will eliminate, resolve or appropriately manage the conflict of interest. For example, whether the management strategy is feasible and you’re able to provide evidence of it being managed.
• If a management strategy wasn’t proposed during procurement, we’ll request you provide one, which will be subject to our agreement.

During the term of the contract

When we receive a conflict of interest notification from your organisation, the information is reviewed to determine whether we have enough information to assess the conflict of interest. We’ll contact you if the information provided on the form requires clarification or additional detail.

We assess the proposed management strategy to ensure it’s feasible, addresses the conflict of interest, and you’d be able to provide evidence of it being managed.

We also consider risk factors, which may include:

• the nature of the conflict of interest
• the nature of the services being delivered
• the parties involved and their ability to exert influence
• consequences if a party were to favour its interest
• matters of ethics or probity.

If we contact you for clarification or more information about the conflict of interest, discussions will involve your DCJ contract manager and lead DCJ contract manager (if applicable), and may include a manager, director and/or representatives from other DCJ business units.

We’ll only accept a conflict of interest once we’re satisfied you’ll be able to eliminate, resolve or appropriately manage it.

Identifying conflicts of interest during our contract management process

DCJ checks for and may identify conflicts of interest during the contract management process. There may also be circumstances that suggest a conflict of interest is present, or that warrant further enquiry; for example, reports in the media.

If we identify or become aware of conflicts of interest during the contract management process, we’ll notify you in writing to obtain more information and to confirm whether there is a conflict of interest. If we determine there is a conflict of interest, you’ll be required to use the DCJ conflict of interest notification form to fully disclose the details to us.

Reviewing annual accountability submissions

Compliance

As part of the annual accountability process, your organisation is required to submit:

• a service provider declaration for corporate-level accountability, which includes confirmation of your compliance with this policy and conflict-of-interest provisions in the contract with us
• an annual accountability certification for contract-level accountability, which includes confirmation of your conflict-of-interest responsibilities in relation to any subcontracting arrangements we have consented to.

If you note any exceptions in either of the documents, and we identify any concerns during the annual accountability assessments, we’ll ask to meet with you to discuss them and plan a course of action to address them.

Financial reporting

As part of the annual accountability process, your organisation is required to submit your financial statements. If the financial statements include notes on related party transactions, we’ll review the financial statements to identify any conflicts of interest.

Asset registers

As part of the annual accountability process, your organisation is required to submit your asset register, listing all assets purchased with DCJ funds over the monetary threshold specified in the contract with us. We review the asset register to identify any acquisitions or disposals that may warrant further investigation; for example, acquisition from a related party, or repeated acquisitions from and/or disposals to the same third party.

Reviewing complaints and community disclosures

We may become aware of conflicts of interest from complaints we receive or through community disclosure. It’s not always the case that these kinds of complaints will expressly refer to a conflict of interest, however, we consider the possibility as part of our process for handling contracting complaints.

Reviewing applications for consent to subcontract

As agreed in the contract with us, you’re required to obtain consent from DCJ to subcontract any part or all of the services. As part of your application, for each proposed subcontractor you’re required to attach one of the following:

• current and historical company extract for private or public company from the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC)
• charity details extract from the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)
• corporation extract from the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC)
• corporation details from the Office of Fair Trading.

We use the information in these documents, together with the information you provide in the application to verify or identify conflicts of interest disclosed or not disclosed in the application.

Reviewing notices of a change of control: merger, acquisition or amalgamation

As agreed in the contract with us, you’re required to notify DCJ in advance of any change of control: a merger, acquisition, amalgamation or similar. We review changes of control to determine whether the new controlling entity provides or has any related parties that provide services to either your organisation or DCJ.

Reviewing change of officers

As agreed in the contract with us, you’re required to notify DCJ of any change of officers. We review change of officers to determine whether the new officer has any related parties that provide services to either your organisation or DCJ.

Monitoring accepted conflicts of interest

Conflicts of interest registers may contain personal and private information which may not be available to all personnel in your organisation. To ensure DCJ is adhering to privacy obligations and requirements, we monitor conflicts of interest registers as agreed with you. The options include monitoring conflicts of interest:

• at regular contract management meetings by your DCJ contract manager
• at a separate meeting with your organisation’s duly authorised officers or equivalent.

At the meetings, we:

• ensure the management strategies are as agreed with DCJ, including any conditions we specified, and are in line with your organisation’s conflicts of interest policy and procedure 
• discuss how the conflicts of interest are being managed, and we may ask for evidence to demonstrate this. Your DCJ contract manager will help identify what constitutes evidence
• check whether:
  • there’s any change of circumstances to disclosed conflicts of interest
  • any adjustments need to be made
  • all conflicts of interest are still relevant and whether any can be closed.

We record all actions and decisions in the meeting minutes, which we share with you.

More regular meetings may be required to monitor certain conflicts of interest, depending on their nature, and these meetings may include a DCJ director and/or representatives from other DCJ business units. We let you know the monitoring frequency at the time we inform you of our acceptance of the conflict of interest.