Re: [Wikimedia-l] Preventing conflicts of interest in Wikimedia organizations' employment and financial relationships

[Fæ]

A valid question would be what has the Board Governance Committee been
working on in the last year?[1]

For all we know the sub-committee has already been actively addressing
COI reporting and the potential for kickbacks. The BGC is /required/
to have meetings at least twice a year, but appears to not publish any
reports or minutes for the wider community to see what progress has
been made.

It makes sense if anyone joining the board agrees that kickbacks
(including later sinecures) or non-financial rewards which could lead
to a conflict of loyalty, should be seen to be avoided for at least 12
or 24 months after being associated with the WMF Board, that this
should be in writing, and have legal weight so that the WMF could
claim damages against anyone acting so foolishly.

Perhaps this is a question one of the four BCG members, or one of
their four advisors, could respond to? Along with helping locate where
any non-confidential minutes or reports are published, such as process
improvement recommendations which by definition cannot contain
anything confidential?

Links
1. 
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Board_Governance_Committee

Fae

On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 20:22, Pine W  wrote:
>
> Awhile back I saw a joke that when reading a newspaper someone had
> difficulty distinguishing between the business section and the crime
> section. These days, the politics section could cause similar
> confusion. Recently I have wondered about the extent to which WMF and
> the affiliates take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in
> financial decisions.
>
> I am not aware of any evidence of recent financial conflicts of
> interest, but I think that taking steps to prevent and detect any
> problems would be prudent.
>
> For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board
> members and executives to ensure that they are not receiving kickbacks
> from companies that have contracts with the organizations? Also, are
> there "cooling off periods" which contractually require that
> executives and board members of WMF and Wikimedia affiliates not
> become employees of companies that have had financial relationships
> with their organizations until at least a few years after their
> employment or board membership with the Wikimedia organization?
>
> Pine
> ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Preventing conflicts of interest in Wikimedia organizations' employment and financial relationships

[Robert Myers]

Most countries would have privacy laws that prevent organisations (with 
exceptions for law and tax enforcement organisations) attaining and/or having 
access to an employee/board member’s bank account. 

Would be pointless anyway, since kickbacks don’t have to be paid into a bank 
account[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-04-16/nsw-premier-barry-ofarrell-to-resign-over-icac-grange-wine/5393478].
 

WMAU has an internal COI register for all committee (board) members. Any time a 
COI arises, it needs to be disclosed. During meetings, depending on the COI the 
person(s) need abstain from voting or leave the meeting. 

>> On 21 May 2020, at 5:23 am, Pine W  wrote:
> Awhile back I saw a joke that when reading a newspaper someone had
> difficulty distinguishing between the business section and the crime
> section. These days, the politics section could cause similar
> confusion. Recently I have wondered about the extent to which WMF and
> the affiliates take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in
> financial decisions.
> 
> I am not aware of any evidence of recent financial conflicts of
> interest, but I think that taking steps to prevent and detect any
> problems would be prudent.
> 
> For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board
> members and executives to ensure that they are not receiving kickbacks
> from companies that have contracts with the organizations? Also, are
> there "cooling off periods" which contractually require that
> executives and board members of WMF and Wikimedia affiliates not
> become employees of companies that have had financial relationships
> with their organizations until at least a few years after their
> employment or board membership with the Wikimedia organization?
> 
> Pine
> ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
> 
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Preventing conflicts of interest in Wikimedia organizations' employment and financial relationships

[effe iets anders]

From what I understand, you're mostly concerned about fraud and conflicts
of interest.

First of all: wholly agree with Andy. I am not aware of any organization
that would monitor the bank account transactions of its board members.
Self-reporting interests, sure. I'm curious what kind of outrageous fraud
you suspect that would justify such invasion of privacy.

Second, any of these measures probably would require us first to have a
clear picture of what would qualify as a problematic relationship that
would benefit from such a cooling off period. Usually, such a cooling off
period seems to be suggested in a context where people may lobby for
something in the hope of getting a juicy appointment elsewhere
afterwards, or because they were strongly colored by a previous appointment
elsewhere. I don't think it's realistic to expect a cooling off period for
voluntary board members. For its staff members, I don't know enough at this
point about labor law to know if this is already covered elsewhere. Do you
know of guidelines that suggest that this is a best practice at charities?

 I suspect most of our organizations will have some implied or explicit
conflict of interest policy, to cover at least that angle.

I'm fascinated what triggered this highly suspicious email. Did I miss
something?

Lodewijk

On Wed, May 20, 2020 at 3:16 PM Andy Mabbett 
wrote:

> On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 20:21, Pine W  wrote:
>
> > For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board
> > members and executives
>
> I  very much hope not. That would be an outrageous intrusion.
>
> --
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Preventing conflicts of interest in Wikimedia organizations' employment and financial relationships

[Lucy Crompton-Reid]

Hi there

I can only speak for Wikimedia UK, but as part of our statutory Annual
Report and Accounts all board members and senior managers have to declare
'Related Party Transactions' - of which since I joined the organisation (in
2015) there have been none.

Best wishes
Lucy



On Thu, 21 May 2020 at 13:01, 
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>1. Re: Preventing conflicts of interest in Wikimedia
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> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 20 May 2020 23:14:59 +0100
> From: Andy Mabbett 
> To: Wikimedia Mailing List 
> Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Preventing conflicts of interest in
> Wikimedia organizations' employment and financial relationships
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> On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 20:21, Pine W  wrote:
>
> > For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board
> > members and executives
>
> I  very much hope not. That would be an outrageous intrusion.
>
> --
> Andy Mabbett
> @pigsonthewing
> http://pigsonthewing.org.uk
>
>
>
> --
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 21 May 2020 10:08:26 +0100
> From: Olushola Olaniyan 
> To: "Carlos M. Colina" 
> Cc: shola 
> Subject: [Wikimedia-l] WikiGap Nigeria Online Contest: Sharing our
> diversity.
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>
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>
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-- 
Lucy Crompton-Reid
Chief Executive
Wikimedia UK
+44 (0) 203 372 0762

*Wikimedia UK* is the national chapter for the global Wikimedia open
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Re: [Wikimedia-l] Preventing conflicts of interest in Wikimedia organizations' employment and financial relationships

[Andy Mabbett]

On Wed, 20 May 2020 at 20:21, Pine W  wrote:

> For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board
> members and executives

I  very much hope not. That would be an outrageous intrusion.

-- 
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk

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[Wikimedia-l] Preventing conflicts of interest in Wikimedia organizations' employment and financial relationships

[Pine W]

Awhile back I saw a joke that when reading a newspaper someone had
difficulty distinguishing between the business section and the crime
section. These days, the politics section could cause similar
confusion. Recently I have wondered about the extent to which WMF and
the affiliates take steps to prevent conflicts of interest in
financial decisions.

I am not aware of any evidence of recent financial conflicts of
interest, but I think that taking steps to prevent and detect any
problems would be prudent.

For example, is there any monitoring of the bank accounts of board
members and executives to ensure that they are not receiving kickbacks
from companies that have contracts with the organizations? Also, are
there "cooling off periods" which contractually require that
executives and board members of WMF and Wikimedia affiliates not
become employees of companies that have had financial relationships
with their organizations until at least a few years after their
employment or board membership with the Wikimedia organization?

Pine
( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )

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