| Date: | 01/15/1980 |
|---|---|
| Organization: | State Ethics Commission |
- This page, EC-COI-80-2, is offered by
- State Ethics Commission
Opinion
Opinion EC-COI-80-2
Table of Contents
Facts
You are a former employee of the budget review program within a Bureau of a state agency (ABC). You ask whether the state's conflict of interest law, General Laws chapter 268A, restricts the duties you may perform as Reimbursement Analyst for your current employer, Inc.
In rendering this opinion, the Commission has been guided by, and will continue to follow for the near future, the interpretations and opinions of the Attorney General issued prior to November 1, 1978, the effective date of the Commission's jurisdiction over Chapter 268A. Furthermore, in rendering this opinion, the Commission has relied upon the facts as you have stated them and has not made any independent investigation of those facts.
Discussion
The provision of the conflict of interest law which governs your conduct as a former employee of the ABC is § 5. Section 5(a) prohibits a former state employee from receiving compensation from or acting as the agent for anyone other than the Commonwealth or a state agency in connection with any particular matter in which the Commonwealth or a state agency is a party or has a direct and substantial interest in which she participated as a state employee.
Section 5(b) prohibits a former state employee, for one year after she leaves state service, from personally appearing before any Massachusetts court or agency as the agent for anyone other than the Commonwealth in connection with any particular matter in which the Commonwealth is a party or has a direct and substantial interest and which was under her official responsibility as a state employee during the last two years of her state employment.
In your present position you will be responsible for preparing Inc.'s 1981 budget and representing Inc. before the ABC on adjustments needed in the 1980 budget. Budget approval is a particular matter of direct and substantial interest to the Commonwealth, and each budget filed annually constitutes a new particular matter. See EC-COI-79-50. Since the 1981 budget has not yet been prepared, the only potential conflict is with the 1980 budget. You advise us that Inc.'s 1980 budget was submitted on August 1, 1979 to ABC which has by law sixty days to review budgets. Since you were employed in the Budget Review Program until August 31, 1979, you were employed by ABC for half of the time permitted for review of Inc.'s budget. You advise us that you did not work on Inc.'s 1980 budget and that work assignments for the 1980 budget review had not been made by your superior before you left the ABC. Since you indicate that your role in the review of the 1980 budgets had not been determined before your termination, you did not "participate" in or have "official responsibility" for Inc.'s 1980 budget. See § 1(j) ("participate") and § 1(i) ("official responsibility"). See also Attorney General Conflict Opinions 623, 845; EC-COI-79-37. Therefore, you are not precluded from assisting Inc. with their 1980 budget and may personally appear before the ABC in connection with that budget.
End Of Decision