Special message to all employees from the administration: Nevada Law requires all state public employees (faculty and staff) and officers to disclose any potential conflict of interest in relation to their public employment annually.

The Nevada law requires disclosure of gifts over $200, any honoraria and/or any other income of more than $2,500 from external consulting or other activities. For any individuals paid from federal funds or working on sponsored projects at the University, the federal government also requires annual disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.

To assist employees in providing the appropriate information and to allow the University to manage the information to ensure that all such activities result in public benefits, a conflict of interest policy and disclosure form were formulated and approved in February of 2004.

The policy and form are both available at the OSPA Website: Implementation of the policy requires completion of a disclosure form by all employees on an annual basis.

All faculty and administrators should complete this form as part of their annual evaluation process. Classified employees should complete and submit this form to their supervisor by March 15, 2007. The policy covers both potential financial conflicts of interest and potential conflicts of commitments/obligations of University employees.

Each employee must submit to his or her supervisor answers to the seven yes or no questions on the conflict of interest disclosure form. This form should not take more than a few minutes to complete. If all the questions on Part I of the form have been answered in the negative, this form can be signed and kept with the employee's personnel file within their department or division.

If any of the questions are answered yes, the employee must then fill out the sections of Part II applicable to their positive disclosure. Positive disclosures should be forwarded to the designated conflict of Interest officer at the University, Cindy Kiel, at Mailstop 325.

Please forward these within 15 business days of receipt of the positive disclosure form. All disclosures must be kept confidential. Information will only be disclosed outside the University if required by law.

We appreciate your participation in ensuring ethical conduct at the University and in the management of perceived conflicts that could lead to public relations issues.

Melanie Robbins, editor of Our Workplace, can be reached at mrobbins@unr.edu.