Duty of employees with respect to conflict of interest
16A Duty of employees with respect to conflict of interest
If an employee of a subsidiary has a pecuniary or other personal interest that conflicts or may conflict with the employee's duties, the employee must disclose in writing to the chief executive of the subsidiary the nature of the interest and the conflict or potential conflict.
An employee of a subsidiary must comply with any written directions given by the chief executive of the subsidiary to resolve a conflict between the employee's duties and a pecuniary or other personal interest.
Without limiting the effect of this clause, an employee of a subsidiary will be taken to have an interest in a matter for the purposes of this clause if an associate of the employee has an interest in the matter.
A disclosure under subclause (1) must be reported to the board of the subsidiary, the board of the parent corporation and the parent corporation's Minister.
Failure by an employee to comply with this clause constitutes grounds for termination of the employee's employment (but this does not derogate from any statutory provisions or other law governing the process for discipline or termination of employment of an employee).
If an employee of a subsidiary makes a disclosure of interest under subclause (1) in respect of a proposed contract—
the contract is not liable to be avoided by the subsidiary; and
the employee is not liable to account to the subsidiary for profits derived from the contract.
If an employee of a subsidiary fails to make a disclosure of interest under subclause (1) in respect of a proposed contract, the contract is liable to be avoided by the subsidiary or by its parent corporation or its parent corporation's Minister.
A contract may not be avoided under subclause (7) if a person has acquired an interest in property the subject of the contract in good faith for valuable consideration and without notice of the contravention.
If a person contravenes this clause in relation to a subsidiary, the parent corporation or the parent corporation's Minister may recover from the person by action in a court of competent jurisdiction—
if the person or any other person made a profit as a result of the contravention—an amount equal to the profit; and
if the subsidiary, the parent corporation or any other subsidiary of the parent corporation suffered loss or damage as a result of the contravention— compensation for the loss or damage.
This clause does not apply in relation to a conflict or potential conflict between an employee's duties and a pecuniary or other personal interest while the employee remains unaware of the conflict or potential conflict, but in any proceedings against the employee the burden will lie on the employee to prove that he or she was not, at the material time, aware of the conflict or potential conflict.
This clause does not apply to a senior executive of a subsidiary.
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