Question: Conflict of Interest

Last year the Presidents of our PTO contracted with parent owned company to provide services to the school for $2500. The company then asked one of them to be a board member. No other bids were obtained for this same service and no formal voting/approval process was followed throughout the year for this or other spending. This board member is a co-president again this year and has plans to continue these services. Any advice on this conflict and the lack of formal procedures? Thank you.

Asked by Anonymous

Answers:

Advice from PTO Today

Rose H writes:
Hi there,
Very simply, that should not be happening. You can take a look at your group's bylaws to see if there is a conflict of interest statement. If one doesn't exist, it would be a great idea to amend the bylaws. In the meantime, not sure if you are comfortable doing it, but someone needs to raise a flag here about this conflict. Here's a sample conflict of interest policy template that may help the process: http://www.ptotoday.com/filesharing/document/499-pto-today-conflict-of-interest-statement.

Rose
Community Manager