CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN CORRUPTION

Conflict of Interest arises when an individual or any public or private organization is all set to pursue his/her or their secondary goals which are getting benefitted in terms of finance or any other advantageous things while turning a deaf ear to honesty and promises made with the organization which is working for only well-being and beneficent of the organization by putting all the personal interest aside. Or in other words conflict of interest is stated as the situation which exists where a professional or corporation could abuse his/her position for Private gain.

On other hand, there is corruption/bribery which is done or taken by the person for one and only one moto that is filling the pockets. Corruption has many appearances but has only one source which is a conflict of interest. The simple difference between conflict of Interest and corruption is, that conflict of interest only cause is professionalism sector, but corruption is not bounded to any limits, receiving extra illegal gain from any kind of work leads to corruption. And the conflict of interest does not always lead to corruption, but corruption always starts from a conflict of Interest, and matter of the fact is that conflict of interest can be steered while corruption risk can be reduced.


Discussing them separately is ok! But when these two concepts are used together for high-level gaining purposes then it vigorously affects the government and institution Integrity, ethical policies and protocols.


Conflict of Interest creates a corruption threat when an individual or institute breaks the laws of the guided policy in the desire of earning another hefty advantage and chose to keep it an inappropriate secret. It is not illegal or unethical to perform a conflict of Interest sometime it is done for a good cause, or sometimes it can happen unintentionally without having an idea about it, what is important is how we manage and resolve it. But it is crime to perform a conflict of interest which include corruption, because in the corruption dictionary there is no word as good cause, either it occurs only because of substandard reasons.


There is no amaze in hearing, that cases related to issues have increased in large numbers compared to the last few decades, and there will be no surprise in hearing that it will further increase. What could be the reason? might be money, relationships, tremendous empathy toward loved ones or early advancement. whatever it is let's look at some common examples and elaborate further:


1. An individual working in the private sector provides a contract to the company in which he or she has financial advantages.

2. An employee is dealing with a company whose owner is his or her relative.

3. An individual who is working in the company at the post of employee is also multitasking in another organization on a post of director, shareholder, or consultant.

4. The owner of the specific companies is also involved in external activities such as political or communal organization for personal benefits.

5. Individual appointing a relative or close one or recruiting the person from whom he/she will gain business advancement in future will lead to the potential conflict of interest.

6. Company insider uplifting the advantage of being an insider and lifting or selling the stock based on information that is publicly hidden.

7. An individual getting ready to grab the position with another organization and works for it beneficent without analyzing existing position work.

8. Employer working part-time in other organizations and providing a consultant to them. Even if it is legal and allowed still it can be the cause of conflict of Interest.


So what can we conclude based on the above example, well we can’t share an exact point of view but one thing we can surely conclude is that reason behind this example is a person who is not satisfied or does not want to settle on regular benefits. To deep dive more into what conflict of interest in corruption is, let's take a scenario-based example:


Akshay was hired by the ABC multinational company on an employee post where he finds out that the company is purchasing the required supplies from the company whose owner is his close friend but he choose not to disclose or discuss it with the organization where he is working as he thought he will never misuse the situation. Over a period of time, Akshay becomes head of buying/selling department and he continues purchasing required supplements from his friend. Firstly Akshay didn’t have any intention regarding personal benefits but as he move forward and progressed in the role he started dominating the position and begin to allocate the business to his friend. He also utilizes his head power by advising or ordering the junior to contract the deal only from his friend's company. This scenario is perfectly sufficient to explain, how Akshay’s smooth start of the conflict of Interest eventually leads to the mighty corruption. 

Even though the environment is now okay for Akshay but if his work gets exposed in the future then the circumstances he has to face are bulky. So it is always better to start any important thing on a good note such as Akshay already has to disclose the conflict of interest as soon as he comes to know about his friend's relationship with the organization, so that authority will take some measures like not providing him with the post in procurement department or even if the chair is provided, an institution deeply looks into the reasons / references he chose his friend company or keep track in his record or work. And if a conflict of interest arises in the future then he can confidently show the legal proof and authorized document of declaring a conflict of interest. Well, it depends on Akshay what he wishes to choose to live in authorized security or to live the good life for some days and to pay hefty penalties later.

As a solution we provided to Akshay there are several guidelines written in the policy that help in mitigating conflict of interest some of them are:


Training:- Effective training on the relationship and significance of conflict of Interest will help the employee to become aware of the conflict of Interest situation or what consequences they will face if they intentionally perform it.

Friendly environment:- The management must keep an environment where employers or workers confidently disclose or declare all types of conflicts of interest in the annual agreement.

Elimination:- In the actual conflict of Interest, precautionary actions are negligible so it is better to consider removing the person from that position so he/she can learn from actions, etc.


After all conflict of Interest is not something that is getting vanishing any time soon, all we have to do is lessen the impact, and taking necessary measures is the key. 

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