Competing Interests

I would invite comment on whether it should be a requirement, at the start of any Executive Committee meeting, for members to be asked to declare any competing interests touching on agenda items, and do the same if any substantial new issue is raised e g under ‘General Business’.  Declarations, or the absence thereof, should be minuted.

A competing interest exists when an Executive Committee member’s judgment concerning a primary interest (for our purposes the proper stewardship of a Strata Plan’s common property, its finances and its general amenity) may be influenced by a secondary interest (such as financial gain or personal rivalry). I regard the term as preferable to ‘conflict of interest’ as it has a wider scope — a ‘conflict’ of interest implies a black or white choice whereas ‘competing’ conveys a range of choices with varying biases between what is best for the Strata Plan vs best for the individual.

A competing interest should not necessarily disqualify an EC member from speaking to a particular issue or even voting on it (in the way that a frank conflict would — or should), but the other members should have an opportunity of considering the individual’s position, and owners generally should be allowed to know the background of a vote on a possibly contentious issue and consider whether it was based purely on each EC member’s perception of the merits of the arguments for and against.