Guard Against Overkill

Common sense and transparency should be front and centre of conflict of interest in corporate governance, business owner, director and multi-award winner Mark Halabe said. 

Perceived or real conflict at board level must be declared and recorded, he said. 

“When board papers are presented for decisions or for information, the conflicted director will need to declare the conflict, and remove themselves from the meeting, to ensure no participation of the conflicted director,” Mr Halabe said. 

In a public consultation on civil aviation, Fiji Airports chief executive Mesake Nawari said conflict of interest by board directors was a challenge in the industry. 

But Mr Halabe said all boards had a wide spectrum of decisions to make. 

“There will be always a possibility of a conflict of interest that will need to be declared,” Mr Halabe said. 

“Does that require the director to resign from the board, or to declare their conflict and excuse themselves from the decision process?” 

“The latter is the normally acceptable action for good governance. 

“To remove effective directors from boards if there is a single conflict would be an overkill.”