Q. In your opinion, is it unethical or a conflict of interest for Council members to sit as voting members on tribal departments or tribal corporate boards exercising dual voting seats on both Council and other boards?A. The mere fact that a Council member works in another tribal department or sits on a tribal corporate board does not normally create a conflict of interest or constitute unethical behavior. However, problems arise when the Council member is called upon to participate in decisions that impact his department or board. At this point, most tribal ethics codes require the member to abstain from voting and some go further by preventing him / her from being present with the Council while it debates the issue. Clearly, participation in decisions that directly effect the member’s department or board does create a conflict of interest. If the Council frequently addresses issues pertaining to the department or board, the member’s productivity on the Council will be seriously compromised so long as they continue “to wear two hats”. Resignation from one of the two positions may then be the only remedy. Joseph M. Paiement is a tribal attorney and an instructor for Falmouth Institute, teaching Ethics, Tribal Constitutions and American Indian Law.
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Should Tribal Council members have their immediate family members apply/get positions within recently hired Contracted companies?
ReplyDelete“Allowing immediate family members to obtain employment positions with companies recently retained by the tribe could create an apparent or actual conflict of interest for tribal council members. It could reasonably appear to tribal members and others that the family member(s) employment was “arranged” as part of the decision to retain the subject company, that the company was selected by the tribal council not because it was the best qualified candidate to complete the work in terms of cost performance but simply because it agreed to hire the family member. Although the “family member hiring” may not have even been raised before awarding the contract, it could have the appearance of impropriety. At a minimum, the tribal council should have do everything possible to make the selection process transparent and make clear that the company was selected on the merits and without regard to future hiring of tribal council family members.” Paiement
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