When reviewing an employee’s form, supervisors should review the form from two perspectives:
- Does the disclosed information represent any potential conflicts with the roles and responsibilities the employee?
- As the supervisor, are you aware of any additional potential conflicts or outside interests that weren’t disclosed on the form?
When reviewing the form, if any of the information creates a concern, supervisors should discuss this with the employee.
If, after discussion, the concerns represent a potential conflict, the supervisor and the employee should work together to outline a plan to manage or mitigate said potential conflict for review/approval.
This planning document should be attached to the Outside Interest Disclosure form with the supervisor’s approval. As mentioned earlier, it is not the responsibility of UT employees to determine whether a potential conflict exists; it is the responsibility of UT itself.
A campus Conflict of Interest Official will review the form and reach out to you and/or the employee for additional information.
If the supervisor is reviewing a form where they feel a potential conflict may exist, but they are not sure, they should reach out to the campus Conflict of Interest Compliance Manager, Jay Taylor Bailey, vtaylor@utk.edu for assistance.