3.2 Managing conflicts of interest
Conflict of interest documents are managed under departmental procedures consistent with the Privacy Act 1988, and storage and handling of this personal information is protected. OHTA maintains a record of all conflicts of interest and the actions taken to address these by the relevant evaluation group, committee or other interested parties.
3.2.1 Management of conflict of interest by members of the PBAC and its subcommittees, working groups and advisers
The department takes appropriate steps to identify interests and manage potential conflicts of interest in relation to submissions to the PBAC. This includes arrangements in relation to departmental staff, committee members, working group participants, advisers and contractors.
Members of committees provide an annual declaration of interests and potential conflicts.
All nongovernment attendees at meetings of the PBAC, subcommittees, working groups or other meetings must confirm whether any additional conflicts have arisen before attending each meeting and at each meeting. A signed declaration is provided by all members for each meeting and stored by the department.
3.2.2 Management of conflict of interest for external evaluation groups
Evaluation entities inform the department of any relevant conflict of interest with submissions to be considered. Each group informs the department of any relevant conflicts of interest in relation to their allocated submissions.
Where there is an unavoidable conflict, the department makes arrangements to manage the identified conflict.
