Awhile back I saw a joke that when reading a newspaper someone had difficulty distinguishing between the business section and the crime section. These days, the politics section could cause similar confusion. Recently I have wondered about the extent to which WMF and the affiliates take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in financial decisions.
I am not aware of any evidence of recent financial conflicts of interest, but I think that taking steps to prevent and detect any problems would be prudent.
For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board members and executives to ensure that they are not receiving kickbacks from companies that have contracts with the organizations? Also, are there "cooling off periods" which contractually require that executives and board members of WMF and Wikimedia affiliates not become employees of companies that have had financial relationships with their organizations until at least a few years after their employment or board membership with the Wikimedia organization?
On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 20:21, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board members and executives
I very much hope not. That would be an outrageous intrusion.
From what I understand, you're mostly concerned about fraud and conflicts
of interest.
First of all: wholly agree with Andy. I am not aware of any organization that would monitor the bank account transactions of its board members. Self-reporting interests, sure. I'm curious what kind of outrageous fraud you suspect that would justify such invasion of privacy.
Second, any of these measures probably would require us first to have a clear picture of what would qualify as a problematic relationship that would benefit from such a cooling off period. Usually, such a cooling off period seems to be suggested in a context where people may lobby for something in the hope of getting a juicy appointment elsewhere afterwards, or because they were strongly colored by a previous appointment elsewhere. I don't think it's realistic to expect a cooling off period for voluntary board members. For its staff members, I don't know enough at this point about labor law to know if this is already covered elsewhere. Do you know of guidelines that suggest that this is a best practice at charities?
I suspect most of our organizations will have some implied or explicit conflict of interest policy, to cover at least that angle.
I'm fascinated what triggered this highly suspicious email. Did I miss something?
Lodewijk
On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 3:16 PM Andy Mabbett andy@pigsonthewing.org.uk wrote:
On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 20:21, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board members and executives
I very much hope not. That would be an outrageous intrusion.
-- Andy Mabbett @pigsonthewing http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
Most countries would have privacy laws that prevent organisations (with exceptions for law and tax enforcement organisations) attaining and/or having access to an employee/board member’s bank account.
Would be pointless anyway, since kickbacks don’t have to be paid into a bank account[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-16/nsw-premier-barry-ofarrell-to-resign-...].
WMAU has an internal COI register for all committee (board) members. Any time a COI arises, it needs to be disclosed. During meetings, depending on the COI the person(s) need abstain from voting or leave the meeting.
On 21 May 2020, at 5:23 am, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Awhile back I saw a joke that when reading a newspaper someone had difficulty distinguishing between the business section and the crime section. These days, the politics section could cause similar confusion. Recently I have wondered about the extent to which WMF and the affiliates take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in financial decisions.
I am not aware of any evidence of recent financial conflicts of interest, but I think that taking steps to prevent and detect any problems would be prudent.
For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board members and executives to ensure that they are not receiving kickbacks from companies that have contracts with the organizations? Also, are there "cooling off periods" which contractually require that executives and board members of WMF and Wikimedia affiliates not become employees of companies that have had financial relationships with their organizations until at least a few years after their employment or board membership with the Wikimedia organization?
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
A valid question would be what has the Board Governance Committee been working on in the last year?[1]
For all we know the sub-committee has already been actively addressing COI reporting and the potential for kickbacks. The BGC is /required/ to have meetings at least twice a year, but appears to not publish any reports or minutes for the wider community to see what progress has been made.
It makes sense if anyone joining the board agrees that kickbacks (including later sinecures) or non-financial rewards which could lead to a conflict of loyalty, should be seen to be avoided for at least 12 or 24 months after being associated with the WMF Board, that this should be in writing, and have legal weight so that the WMF could claim damages against anyone acting so foolishly.
Perhaps this is a question one of the four BCG members, or one of their four advisors, could respond to? Along with helping locate where any non-confidential minutes or reports are published, such as process improvement recommendations which by definition cannot contain anything confidential?
Links 1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Commit...
Fae
On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 20:22, Pine W wiki.pine@gmail.com wrote:
Awhile back I saw a joke that when reading a newspaper someone had difficulty distinguishing between the business section and the crime section. These days, the politics section could cause similar confusion. Recently I have wondered about the extent to which WMF and the affiliates take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in financial decisions.
I am not aware of any evidence of recent financial conflicts of interest, but I think that taking steps to prevent and detect any problems would be prudent.
For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board members and executives to ensure that they are not receiving kickbacks from companies that have contracts with the organizations? Also, are there "cooling off periods" which contractually require that executives and board members of WMF and Wikimedia affiliates not become employees of companies that have had financial relationships with their organizations until at least a few years after their employment or board membership with the Wikimedia organization?
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia-l New messages to: Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, mailto:wikimedia-l-request@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe
wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org