Good response.
I used to work as a government auditor, and I have a lot of experience in auditing whether particular staff have a conflict of interest and whether it was handled correctly if they do.
There is nothing inherently “bad” in a conflict of interest – no one should ever be afraid or declaring one. What is “bad” is if someone has a conflict and doesn’t declare it because that means others involved in voting don’t know the full situation so they are voting based on partial information.