You are currently employed on a part-time basis as a professional at a State Hospital within the Department of Mental Health (DMH). Your responsibilities include the supervision of staff clinicians and the coordination of certain services. In your non-salaried hours, you provide consultation to private and community institutions on a certain subject. Your consultation is usually in the form of training workshops.
You have recently been asked by a Community Mental Health Center (Center) to conduct your workshop and wish to know whether you may accept compensation from the Center for your services. You also wish to know what limits the conflict of interest law, G.L. c. 268A, places on your consultation to other institutions.
The Commission advises you that you may accept compensation for your workshops subject to the limitations set forth below.
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. In your capacity at the State Hospital, you are a state employee within the meaning of G.L. c. 268A, s.1(q). In view of your part-time status, you are a special state employee under G.L. c. 268A, s.1(o) and are, therefore, subject to the provisions of the conflict of interest law, albeit in a less restrictive way. G.L. c. 268A prohibits state employees from having a direct or indirect financial interest in a contract made by a state agency. However, as a special state employee, you are prohibited from having such an interest only where you participate[1] in or have official responsibility[2] for any of the activities of the contracting agency, provided that you file with the Commission a statement making full disclosure of your interest in any state contract. G.L. c. 268A, s.7(d). Further, even if you do participate in or have official responsibility for any of the activities of the contracting agency, you may have a financial interest in a contract made by that agency if you file the required disclosure with the Commission and if the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Executive Council, exempts you. See, G.L. c. 268A, s.7(e); EC-COI-81-149.
The Commission advises you that your acceptance of compensation from the Center would not violate s.7. Inasmuch as you state that your compensation would be paid out of private Center funds which are not attributable to state contracts, you would, therefore, not have a financial interest in a contract made by a state agency. Compare, EC-COI-81-149; 81-141. However, if you were paid for your workshop out of funds attributable to a state contract, then you could receive such compensation only if you complied with the exemptions in s.s.7(d) or (e) described above.[3]
The Commission further advises you that your receipt of compensation for your workshop from private, non-state funding sources would not violate G.L. c. 268A, s.4(a). Under s.4(a) you are prohibited, as a special state employee, from receiving compensation from anyone other than the commonwealth in relation to a particular matter of direct and substantial interest to the commonwealth only where the particular matter is one (a) in which you have at any time participated as a state employee, or (b) which is or within one year has been a subject of your official responsibility, or (c) which is pending in the state agency in which you are serving. G.L. c. 268A, s.4, 116. While your consultant contract would constitute a particular matter within the meaning of s.1(k), the commonwealth does not have a direct and substantial interest in the matter. Nor does it appear that your workshop involves consultation over specific cases referred by state agencies. Compare, EC-COI-81-148.
You should also be aware that G.L. c. 268A, s.23 prohibits state employees from accepting other employment that will impair their independence of judgment in the exercise of their official duties, or from giving, by their conduct, reasonable basis for the impression that any person can improperly influence them or unduly enjoy their favor in the performance of those duties. It further prohibits state employees from using their official positions to secure unwarranted privileges for themselves or from pursuing a course of conduct which will raise suspicion among the public that they are likely to be engaged in violations of their trust. Keeping these principles in mind, you should observe the following requirements with respect to your training workshops:
- State supplies or facilities not available to the general public should not be used in the preparation or delivery of the workshop;
- State time should not be taken for the preparation or delivery of the workshop;
- Presenting the workshop should not be part of your official duties at the State Hospital; and
- Neither the sponsor of the workshop nor the source of the compensation, if different, should be a person or entity with which you might reasonably expect to have dealings in your official capacity at the State Hospital. See, EC-COI-81-46; 80-29.
If questions should subsequently arise over the application of the provisions of G.L. c. 268A to your conducting workshops at particular institutions or agencies, you should renew your advisory opinion request with the Commission at that time.
End of Decision
