NIATM Admin Login NIATM Student Login Result & Verification

Conflict of Interest Policy

Title

Conflict of Interest Policy

Institution

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED TECHNICAL & MANAGEMENT STUDIES

Website

niatm-edu.com

Email

info@niatm-edu.com

Short Name

NIATM

Policy Type

Conflict of Interest Policy

(B) Policy Statement

To protect the interest of all stakeholders, the institute must ensure that every position, whether permanent, temporary, assignment-based, freelance, contractual, or honorary, has a clearly defined role and responsibility. As an institute, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED TECHNICAL & MANAGEMENT STUDIES (NIATM) must ensure that the roles and responsibilities defined for every professional engaged by it are clear, precise, measurable, and not overlapping or ambiguous.

This policy aims to create clarity among all professionals and all institutional bodies, forums, and councils so that all roles and responsibilities remain clear, non-ambiguous, and non-conflicting.

(C) Objectives of Policy

The sole aim of this policy is to provide and define clear, non-ambiguous, and non-conflicting roles and responsibilities to every professional engaged and every body, forum, or council created by NIATM and its authorized centres so that:

  1. The learner and stakeholder have clarity about the overall mechanism created by the institute for delivery of services and support against the investment made by them.
  2. No professional, forum, body, or council is assigned any set of responsibilities or tasks that contradict another set of tasks and responsibilities assigned to the same professional, body, forum, or council, or which conflict with responsibilities assigned to others by the institute or its authorized agencies.
  3. Any instance of vested interest, malfunctioning, malpractice, or biased decision-making by any professional, body, council, or forum engaged or created by the institute is blocked.
  4. An inbuilt checks and control mechanism is created to prevent, check, investigate, and mitigate any instance of conflict of interest in any function or role.
  5. All stakeholders have knowledge about the Conflict of Interest Policy.
  6. All staff members and associates of NIATM sign a declaration of conflict of interest where applicable.
  7. Assessment and institutional records are retained as per the Document Management Policy and any applicable academic or regulatory guidelines.

(D) Definitions

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure refers to the approved organization chart and reporting hierarchy of the institute.

Job / Position Description

For the purpose of this policy, Job or Position Description means a document carrying the following details of a position:

  1. Title of the position
  2. Grade and cadre in the organizational structure
  3. Reporting relationship of the position
  4. Minimum academic qualification required
  5. Set of skills, competence, and expertise required
  6. Minimum level of experience required
  7. Age range, where relevant and legally applicable
  8. Tasks and responsibilities to be performed by the professional engaged for the position
  9. Business, operational, or functional goals or KRAs of the position
  10. Any other specific relevant requirement or criteria required to perform in that position

Conflict of Interest (COI)

For this policy, a conflict of interest is a situation, state, or condition where either an organization or a professional in an organization has competing interests or conflicting loyalties that might negatively impact or impair their ability to make objective, unbiased, and neutral decisions in line with standard policies and processes.

Conflicts of interest can arise in more than one context. This policy covers conflicts of interest that impact or negatively affect, or could affect, the institute’s ability to develop, deliver, assess, monitor, and award qualifications, courses, certifications, and academic services in a compliant, credible, and fair manner.

Examples of How Conflict of Interest Arises

  • A situation in which an individual or organization has competing interests or loyalties.
  • When an individual has a position of authority in one organization that conflicts with his or her interests in another organization.
  • When an individual has personal, financial, academic, or professional interests that conflict with his or her role.
  • Where someone works for or carries out work on behalf of the institute but also has paid or unpaid interests in another business which may influence decision-making.
  • Where someone works for the institute and has friends or relatives taking assessments or examinations.
  • Contractual arrangements where a person engaged by NIATM has other interests in outside organizations that may influence decisions taken for NIATM.
  • Involvement of any senior member of the institute in assessment or internal verification where independence is required.
  • If the institute provides training and also has a direct interest in learner attainment in a way that may impair neutrality.
  • If an institute or centre is also a corporate training provider and fails to clearly differentiate academic qualifications and training services.
  • When an assessor takes part in internal quality assurance for his or her own assessment work.
  • When an internal quality assurer has a relative who has appeared for the qualification that the same IQA is required to quality assure.
  • When the head of learning and delivery, finance head, business development manager, or assessor takes part in an internal quality assurance exercise where independence is compromised.
  • When the owner or senior management of the organization has a personal interest in an assessment or IQA exercise that may lead to financial gain to the organization or a related party.
  • When an external quality assurer marks assessments on an individual capacity and later quality assures his or her own marked work.
  • Any individual having a personal interest in the outcome of assessments for any reason.
  • Any professional who carries out or influences any activity in the assessment process or any other institutional process for financial gain or favour.
  • Any learner or student who offers bribery or favour to influence an assessor or any member of the institute to obtain undue advantage.

Process Owner

The Process Owner is the senior professional in the executive cadre, having expertise, experience, and competence in the respective field and working on behalf of NIATM as a full-time employee or on contractual basis, and has been assigned total responsibility and accountability for process, statutory, or service delivery compliance, with or without a team under him or her.

The Process Owner is expected to comply with the processes and policies assigned to him or her, ensure compliance with applicable laws and statutes, and ensure service delivery to stakeholders covered under his or her role and responsibilities.

(E) Policy Framework

This policy will have the following major compliance segments:

  1. Role and responsibilities for each position, as mentioned in the prescribed organizational chart of the institute.
  2. Internal checks and control mechanism.
  3. Role and responsibilities under the policy.
  4. Investigation and reporting process.
  5. Authorities and approvals.
  6. Identification of conflict of interest within business operations, governing council, and with stakeholders.

(a) Roles and Responsibilities for Each Position

  1. For this policy, the standard approved organizational chart will be the base document to refer to all roles.
  2. For this policy, the Master Competency Matrix Document will be considered for role and responsibility checks.
  3. The prescribed Job Description will be reviewed and audited to validate possible conflict of interest in the tasks and assignments of each position.
  4. The roles and position titles will be assigned in accordance with the institute’s approved role matrix and job clusters.

Each role under the matrix must be unique and must be assigned unique and non-overlapping tasks, KRAs, or responsibilities. No function or assignment in one role should conflict with the role of another.

(g) Internal Checks and Control Mechanism

This policy identifies the following categories of roles and positions within the organization or at its centres:

  1. Operations and Administration
  2. Service Deliveries
  3. Compliance and Monitoring
  4. Management and Control
  5. Policy and Strategic Governance

The jobs and roles in Compliance and Monitoring, Management and Control, and Policy and Strategic Governance are responsible for internal checks and control through effective execution of all policies for which they are responsible.

While roles in Operations and Administration and Service Deliveries are responsible for execution and documentation of process compliance, the roles in Compliance and Monitoring, Management and Control, and Policy and Strategic Governance are responsible for review, monitoring, whistleblowing, and reporting any possibility or instance of violation or non-compliance.

The horizontal role clusters in a particular function indicate hierarchy and accountability toward the next level in the same function, thereby ensuring internal control for compliance.

(h) Role and Responsibilities Under the Policy

This policy defines the following categories of roles and positions/jobs in the organization and/or at its centres:

  1. Operations and Administration: Executive Administration, Executive Operations, Executive Accounts and Finance, Internal Examiners, Executive Sales and Administration.
  2. Service Deliveries: Executive Human Resources, Executive CSR, Executive IT, Teachers, Faculty Members, Learning Delivery Members.
  3. Compliance and Monitoring: Manager Operations, Manager CSR, Manager Sales and Administration, Head Learning Delivery, Quality Controller, External Examiner.
  4. Management and Control: Responsible Officer, Director Business Development, Director Operations, Finance Controller or consulting equivalent.
  5. Policy and Strategic Governance: Directors, Responsible Officer, Chairman, Governing Council.

The above roles will have prescribed responsibilities and accountabilities as mentioned in their specific documents. No role can have responsibilities that overlap with another role in a way that leads to conflict of interest.

No role from one role cluster or box may take up or carry out responsibilities of another role cluster where that would lead to a conflict of interest.

(i) Investigation and Reporting Process

  1. The roles in Monitoring and Compliance clusters are responsible as whistleblowers to raise alarm whenever they observe any possibility of conflict of interest.
  2. The Responsible Officer or professional concerned will submit a formal report by written communication in case any possibility or observed instance of conflict of interest arises, to the professional in Management and Control or to the Process Owner of that policy.
  3. The written communication must contain the following minimum information:
    • Role or position details where there is a possibility of conflict of interest or where the instance has been observed.
    • Justification or explanation about the instance.
    • Details of possible impact or impact already observed due to the conflict of interest.
  4. The role of the Process Owner is to study the report, validate the details, recommend appropriate action, and forward the matter to the Management and Control member for further action.
  5. The Management and Control member will study the report and recommendations and appoint an independent, neutral professional or team, not below the rank of manager, for further investigation and recommendation of solution.
  6. The investigation team will investigate and submit a report along with detailed corrective actions to the Management and Control team.
  7. The Management and Control team will take the final decision based on the recommendations by the investigation officer or team and close the instance.
  8. The Management and Control team may review the process so as to close any loophole and recommend changes or amendments to Policy and Strategic Governance to prevent recurrence.

(j) Authorities and Approvals

  1. The first group of roles in Service Deliveries and Operations and Administration are responsible for implementation of the policy in their functional area and are also designated whistleblowers where they see any instance or possibility of non-compliance.
  2. The roles in the Compliance and Monitoring group are responsible for ensuring that internal checks and control mechanisms remain active and operational for continuous monitoring of policy implementation and compliance.
  3. The professionals appointed for roles in Management and Control are custodians and process owners and hold final accountability to ensure zero tolerance for this policy.
  4. The professionals in Management and Control are reviewing and controlling authorities under this policy to review complaints, review effective implementation, and block the possibility of violation.
  5. The roles in Policy and Strategic Governance are the final authorities for all corrective actions under this policy, under approval of the Governing Body or Chairman, within the stipulated timeframe.

(F) Other Important Provisions of Conflict of Interest Policy

  1. The process controls must be in place to eradicate any possibility of conflict of interest under this policy.
  2. The major steps and process controls to be implemented and ensured by the Process Owner include:
    1. The role of Assessor, Examiner, Teacher, and Faculty must be crystal clear and well defined so that there is no ambiguity or overlapping of responsibility among these roles.
    2. The Learning Delivery team member is only responsible for preparing and executing learning delivery plans, preparing reading notes and learning quizzes, delivering lectures against prescribed modules, and designing topics for case studies and project-based learning.
    3. The Learning Delivery team member will not indulge in, contribute to, or participate directly or indirectly in any activity related to assessment, examination, evaluation, course development, or preparation of question papers or question banks for any subject for which learning delivery is his or her responsibility.
  3. Any act or instance of conflict of interest by any member of the learning delivery team may lead to disciplinary action, and the outcome or result affected by such an act may be considered invalid, null, and void.
  4. The moderator or lead faculty under the Process Owner of this policy will be responsible for ensuring zero tolerance for this clause of the policy.

(G) Declaration of COI (Conflict of Interest)

It is mandatory to declare a conflict of interest when it is identified by the institute, individual, governance body, management representative, or any senior member, by completing the COI declaration form.

Once the COI is declared, NIATM will determine how the next activity related to the identified area shall be performed. COI may be identified in an individual, organization, administration, operations, assessment delivery, verification, or any other relevant activity.

The non-declaration of a potential COI or refusal to perform the actions recommended by NIATM upon identification of COI may attract sanctions and may be considered malpractice or maladministration.

COI shall be declared to the HR Manager and/or Responsible Officer, who shall be responsible for ongoing monitoring and review of COI.

To Ensure Compliance of this Policy

  1. NIATM and its associates must ensure that no personal interest exists in activities involved in decisions on standards, learner work, attainment, assessment, or internal/external verification.
  2. Close monitoring must be kept on every decision that may give rise to potential COI.
  3. Integrity must be maintained at all functions.
  4. All policies and qualification criteria must be followed as described.
  5. Any COI or potential COI must be reported when identified.
  6. When an identified COI is unmanageable, the concerned individual must withdraw from that activity, alternate resources must be arranged, and the instance must be recorded as per data protection and record policies.
  7. The institute must also keep relevant regulatory or external oversight bodies updated where such instances are identified and acted upon, if applicable.
  8. Centres must keep records of all COI and potential COI and update the institute upon identification.
  9. The institute must ensure integrity by clearly differentiating regulated and non-regulated programmes in advertising, website content, titles, curriculum overviews, and learner-facing descriptions.
  10. The institute must ensure that no third party is involved in delivery of regulated qualifications on behalf of the institute or centre without written approval and robust quality parameter checks, where such framework applies.

(H) Governing Council

The Governing Council is accountable to identify and manage conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest that may arise in the following cases:

1. Identification of Conflict of Interest

  1. Change in role within or outside the organization.
  2. Taking a decision related to a learner or group of learners.
  3. Taking a decision for any centre.
  4. Taking a decision for any employee, department, department head, functional head, or process owner.
  5. Appointment of a member of a council where the person has a position in another organization and may seek to influence decisions of NIATM for financial or personal interest.
  6. An individual involved in design and development of courses or qualifications while his or her friends or relatives are taking the same courses or qualifications.
  7. Taking a decision on any allegation claimed against any board member, director, responsible officer, chair of the council, or chairman where the alleged member is a relative of another board member.
  8. Following a policy and process designed and developed to take decisions on allegations against the senior team of the organization.
  9. Any other potential conflict of interest that may arise from any activity conducted by an individual or centre.

2. Dealing with COI

If any COI or potential COI is found, the council will follow the COI policy to ensure unbiased decision-making and compliance with institutional, academic, and regulatory requirements. The following shall be ensured:

  1. The conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest will be recorded and documented.
  2. The member identified as part of the conflict of interest will not be involved in the investigation and/or decision-making process for that subject or case.
  3. The other members will take an unbiased decision for that subject.
  4. All members will follow the COI policy.
  5. All members of the council and other stakeholders must maintain the integrity of the institute, its qualifications, its services, and their own integrity.

Responsible Officer and Conflict of Interest

  • The Responsible Officer will report COI and potential COI to the board and relevant authorities as needed, together with mitigation plans or actions.
  • Cases and potential cases will be investigated, and judgements will be recorded and filed with required evidence and reports.

Policy Compliance

To ensure compliance with this policy:

  • NIATM and its associates, directors, assessors, internal quality assurers, and related personnel will follow all areas specified in this policy at all times.
  • NIATM and its associates will ensure that no personal interest exists in decisions on standards, learner work, attainment, assessment, or internal/external verification.
  • Every decision that may give rise to COI must be closely monitored.
  • Integrity must be maintained at all functions.
  • All policies and qualification criteria must be followed as described.
  • Any COI or potential COI must be reported as soon as it is identified.
  • Where identified COI is unmanageable, the concerned person must withdraw from the activity and alternate arrangements must be made and recorded.
  • The institute will keep necessary oversight bodies updated when such instances are identified and acted upon, where relevant.
  • Centres must keep records of all COI and potential COI in accordance with document management requirements.
  • All staff and associates shall sign the COI declaration and declare any COI or potential COI during their term, contract, association, or employment with NIATM.
  • All judgements, declarations, and records of COI shall be maintained and the policy shall be reviewed regularly to ensure that it remains fit for purpose.
  • The person identified as part of a conflict of interest will not be involved in the investigation or decision-making process for that case.
  • No one with a personal interest in the outcome of an assessment is to be involved in the assessment process, including assessors, internal verifiers, invigilators, process owners, and others.
  • Records under this policy shall be retained for review by relevant authorities, quality assurers, internal or external verifiers, for the duration specified in the Document Management Policy or any longer duration required by applicable guidelines.

Contact Information

NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADVANCED TECHNICAL & MANAGEMENT STUDIES (NIATM)
Website: niatm-edu.com
Email: info@niatm-edu.com