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* By Vitória Silva

Have you ever stopped to think about how the climate of respect and the encouragement of courageous conversations are important for us to deal with situations of conflict of interest on a daily basis?

In the corporate environment, we understand that a conflict of interest occurs whenever you experience a situation that may lead you to make decisions motivated by personal interests.

So that these internal actions do not reflect in ethical conflicts, it is essential that professionals understand better what a conflict of interest is in order to know how to avoid and deal with it in their daily work.

Based on the Anti-bribery Compliance Management Systems Certification Standard (NBR ISO 37001:2016), conflict of interest is when various issues such as: professional, financial, family, political or personal, can interfere in people's judgment when exercising their actions within organizations.

Imagine a scenario where the professionals of a company start to act based on their own interests and not the primary interests of the corporation, this will generate a conflict. These situations can happen when private interests or those outside the company's influence the value judgment or transparent performance of employees and third parties in relation to the business.

Each company has its own scenario, however, an organization will be able to establish a culture of integrity and easy interpretation with the implementation of some measures. It will be important to identify the company's values to align with the code of conduct and expectations in relation to employees, it is also necessary to define internal controls, have a conflict of interest policy and provide training and documentation for consultation. It is important to give practical directions, exemplify with clear situations and make the content understandable for everyone, facilitating understanding. A good program of Compliance and a reporting channel, will give freedom to people who need a voice, without interference.

Still wondering when conflict of interest situations happen? To further simplify the matter, we will show a list of real examples that characterize conflict:

Does not match:

  • When employees and third parties establish relationships with political parties on behalf of the company;
  • Receiving or offering gifts, gifts and entertainment to government officials;
  • Perform extra activities with company resources and within working hours.

The perfect match:

  • Generally, the relationship between employees is allowed, as long as they are not part of the same hierarchical line, for example, leader and subordinate. The relationship must be declared whenever there is an update of the conflict of interest form suggested by the team of Compliance;
  • Face relationships in a professional manner, whether with suppliers, customers, partners or employees;
  • It's okay to accept and give gifts to customers, suppliers and partners, as long as they are within the limits stipulated by the company.

A secure environment is built on everyone's transparency!

*Vitória Silva is an Information Security Consultant at [Safeway]

About Safeway:

THE SAFEWAY is an Information Security company, recognized by its clients for offering high added value solutions, through Information Security projects that fully meet the needs of the business. In these years of experience, we have proudly accumulated several successful projects that have given us credibility and prominence among our clients, which largely constitute the 100 largest companies in Brazil.

Today through more than 23 strategic partnerships with global manufacturers and our SOC, SAFEWAY is considered a one stop shopping with the best technology solutions, processes and people.

Let's make the world a safer place to live and do business!