| Date: | 12/08/1981 |
|---|---|
| Organization: | State Ethics Commission |
Section 7 of G. L. c. 268A prohibits a state employee from having any financial interest in a contract between the state employee’s state agency and a private organization for which the state employee wants to work as a consultant. As a consultant, the state employee would have a financial interest in a state contract and none of the exemptions to the prohibition in § 7 will apply.
You are employed on a full-time basis as the Director for the ABC area within the Department of DEF (DEF).
You wish to know whether the conflict of interest law permits you to serve as a consultant on a grant for the XYZ Foundation, a private entity which has received the grant to produce a training curriculum.
The Commission advises you that it does not, inasmuch as the grant is funded, in part, by a state agency.
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 as a Director for DEF, you are a state employee within the meaning of G.L. c. 268A, s.1(q). As a state employee, you are prohibited by G.L. c. 268A, s.7 from having a financial interest in a contract made by a state agency in which the commonwealth or a state agency is an interested party. Inasmuch as the grant through which you would receive compensation from XYZ is partially funded by the Massachusetts GHI Council, a state agency (see Attorney General Conflict opinion NOS. ), your acceptance of compensation under the grant would constitute a financial interest in a contract made by a state agency in violation of G.L. c. 268A, s.7. None of the exemptions contained within s.7 apply to you.
End Of Decision
