Purpose

The purpose of conflict of interest policy is:

• To maintain credibility and transparency in accreditation process
• To have confidence and assurance of fairness and impartiality in the decision making vis-a-vis the accreditation processes

Persons of Interest who must declare any conflict of interests:
Members of governing council, Executive committee, Academic Advisory Committee, Evaluation and Accreditation Committee, Chair persons/ members of evaluation team, Resource persons, Master trainers, and Consultant and Staff of NBA.

Procedure

In order to avoid potential or perceived conflict of interest, the persons of interest are not expected to:

• have personal or financial interests of any kind in the university/institution; or
• have or had a close, active association with the programme or faculty/school/department in the university/institution that is being considered for accreditation. Some of the close/active associations are:
1. serving as faculty or consultant, either currently or in the past, for the university/institution whose programme is being considered for accreditation;
2. being an alumnus or a recipient of honorary degree from the university/institution whose programme is being considered for accreditation;
3. hold current or past membership of a board of the university/institution or any advisory committee in the university/institution whose programme is being considered for accreditation
4. Having current or past discussions or negotiations of employment with the institutions. The list above is just illustrative, and not exhaustive.
• The persons with conflict of interest must absent themselves from any NBA meeting in which discussions or decisions occur for which they have any actual or possible conflict of interest.
• Governing Council, Executive Committee, Evaluation and Accreditation committee and Staff members of NBA may observe an accreditation visit, but they are not eligible to serve as members or Chairpersons of Evaluative team.
• All representatives of NBA must sign a conflict of interest indicating that they have understood policies.

Duty to Disclose

The responsibility of disclosing any conflict of interest lies with the individuals identified as persons of interest. They must come forward voluntarily and disclose the nature of their conflict and recuse themselves from discussions about the institution with which they have the said conflict.