Public Corporations Act 1993

If an employee of a public corporation 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 corporation the nature of the interest and the conflict or potential conflict.

An employee of a public corporation must comply with any written directions given by the chief executive of the corporation to resolve a conflict between the employee's duties and a pecuniary or other personal interest.

Without limiting the effect of this section, an employee of a public corporation will be taken to have an interest in a matter for the purposes of this section if an associate of the employee has an interest in the matter.

A disclosure under subsection (1) must be reported to the board of the corporation and to the corporation's Minister.

Failure by an employee to comply with this section 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 public corporation makes a disclosure of interest under subsection (1) in respect of a proposed contract—

the contract is not liable to be avoided by the corporation; and

the employee is not liable to account to the corporation for profits derived from the contract.

If an employee of a public corporation fails to make a disclosure of interest under subsection (1) in respect of a proposed contract, the contract is liable to be avoided by the corporation or the corporation's Minister.

A contract may not be avoided under subsection (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 section in relation to a public corporation, the corporation or the 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 corporation or a subsidiary of the corporation suffered loss or damage as a result of the contravention—compensation for the loss or damage.

This section 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 section does not apply to a senior executive of a public corporation.