Authority members and employees must:

• Not seek or solicit gifts, benefits and hospitality for themselves or others;

• Refuse all offers of gifts, benefits and hospitality that:
  • Are money, items used in a similar way to money, or items easily converted to money;
  • Are or may be construed as, rewards or inducements for directing business towards that organisation or person;
  • Give rise to an actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest;
  • May adversely affect their standing with the Authority or which may bring the Authority or the public sector into disrepute; and
  • Are non-token offers without a legitimate business benefit;

• Declare all non-token offers (valued at $50 or more) of gifts, benefits and hospitality (whether accepted or declined) on the Authority gift register, and seek written approval from the Registrar or the Chair to accept any non-token offer; and

• Refuse bribes or inducements and report all bribery attempts to the Registrar or to the Chair (who should report any criminal or corrupt conduct to the internal auditors, Victoria Police or the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC).

Authority members and employees providing gifts, benefits and hospitality must:

• Ensure that it is provided for a business purpose in that it furthers the conduct of official business or other legitimate Authority goals or promotes and supports government policy objectives and priorities.
• Ensure that any costs are proportionate to the benefits obtained for the State and would be considered reasonable in terms of community expectations; and
• Ensure that when hospitality is provided, individuals demonstrate professionalism in their conduct, and uphold their obligation to extend a duty of care to other participants.

Any breach of the gifts, benefits and hospitality policy may constitute a breach of binding codes of conduct and may constitute criminal or corrupt conduct and may result in disciplinary action (P-19 –Resource Management).