Fact Sheet on State of Indiana Conflict Interest Disclosure Statement

Note:

1. Indiana law generally declares it a crime for a public employee to knowingly or intentionally derive a pecuniary benefit from transactions between the employee and her/his public employer. The law provides certain defenses to a charge of conflict of interest, including disclosure of the conflict to and acceptance of the disclosure by the public employer. To avoid criminal penalties, therefore, University employees should disclose to the Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Indiana University any situations likely to result in a contract involving the purchase, sale, or services or other matter, between the University and the employee or employee’s dependents. The law does not apply to the normal contract of employment. Advance approval of a transaction by the Office of the Vice President and General Counsel (OVPGC) or the University’s trustees, as appropriate, insulates the transaction from criminal prosecution. For University employees, disclosure is made and the approval process is reflected on a preprinted State Conflict of Interest form which may be downloaded from http://vpgc.iu.edu/sample-agreements/conflicts-of-interest.shtml. The form may be printed and hand-filled and signed, or completed electronically in digital form.

2. Once the employee completes and signs* the form it should then be submitted to her/his Dean, unless the department chair has been specified by her/his school, for review.

3. After the unit head reviews and signs* the form, it should then be sent to the Campus Executive Officer (Provost or Chancellor).

4. After review and signature* by the Campus Executive Officer, the form is sent to the OVPGC (Bryan Hall Room 211, IU Bloomington) for review and signature*.

5. If the dollar value of the transactions disclosed exceeds five thousand dollars ($5,000.00), the form is then presented to the Indiana University Board of Trustees at the next scheduled meeting(https://trustees.iu.edu/). Board of Trustees meetings occur every two months. Once approved by the Board, the Board Secretary signs and indicates the date of the Board action.

6. After approval by OVPGC and/or the Board of Trustees, the form is scanned and sent to the State Board of Accounts. The original form is maintained by the Board of Trustees for its records.

7. Employees will receive email confirmation from of the Office of the Board of Trustees once the Conflict of Interest statement has been formally approved. If you have questions, please contact the Secretary of the Board of Trustees, dalemon@iu.edu.

*Note regarding digital copies and signatures: A PDF version of the signed and scanned form is acceptable as are digital signatures created using Adobe Acrobat. The PDF form available from the link in paragraph 1 is enabled to accept digital signatures.

October 7, 2015 ver.