1024 Conflicts of Interest Overview

Georgia State Seal

Georgia Division of Aging Services
Administrative Manual

Chapter:

1000 Division of Aging Services Introduction

Effective Date:

10/01/2025

Section Title:

Conflicts of Interest Overview

Reviewed or Updated in:

MT 2026-02

Section Number:

1024

Previous Update:

N/A - NEW

Summary Statement

The Department of Human Services, Division of Aging Services (DHS/DAS) will adhere to the Older Americans Act (OAA) and regulations under 45 C.F.R. § 1321.47, which requires State agencies to implement policies and procedures to safeguard against conflicts of interest on the part of the State agency, employees, and agents of the State who have responsibilities related to Title III programs (refer to OAA, Title III). Further as public employees in Georgia, there are also state laws on Conflict of Interest and ethical considerations which DHS/DAS must adhere to.

Basic Considerations

DHS/DAS must have policies and procedures to manage conflicts of interest as it relates to DHS/DAS employees and agents of the State. These policies and procedures must establish mechanisms to:

  1. Identify any potential or perceivable conflicts of interest at both individual and organizational levels.

  2. Establish procedures to avoid, remove and remedy any potential, actual, or perceivable conflicts of interest

The State Agency must also have policies and procedures regarding conflicts of interest for Area Agencies on Aging (AAA) leadership and staff as well as for their relevant governing boards, advisory councils, and volunteers. Those policies will be addressed in the AAA section of this manual.

Procedures

DHS/DAS’s policies and procedures to manage conflicts of interest relating to the responsibility of Title III programs should include the following key factors:

  1. Preventing Financial Conflicts of Interest: Ensure DHS/DAS employees and agents administering Title III programs do not have a financial interest in a Title III programs.

  2. Addressing and Resolving Conflict: Remove and remedy actual, perceived, or potential conflicts that arise due to an employee or agent’s financial interest in a Title III program.

  3. Monitoring and Oversight: Establish a robust monitoring and oversight practice, including periodic reviews, to identify conflicts of interest in the Title III programs.

  4. Preventing Individual and Immediate Family Conflicts: Ensure that no individual, or member of the immediate family of an individual, involved in administering or providing a Title III program has a conflict of interest.

  5. Ensuring Compliance by Other Agencies: Ensure other agencies that operate a Title III program have policies in place to prohibit the employment or appointment of Title III program decision-makers, staff, or volunteers with a conflict that cannot be adequately removed or remedied per 45 C.F.R. § 1324.67.

  6. Suspension or Removal of Individuals with Conflicts: Establish reasonable steps to suspend or remove Title III program responsibilities of an individual who has a conflict of interest, or who has an immediate family member with a conflict of interest, which cannot be adequately removed or remedied.

  7. Preventing Organizational Conflicts: Ensure that no organization which Provides Title III service is subject to a conflict of interest.

  8. Prohibiting Solicitation of Gratuities: Prohibit the officers, employees, or agents of the Title III program from soliciting or accepting gratuities, favors, or anything of monetary value from grantees, contractors, and/or subrecipients, except where policies and procedures allow for situations where the financial interest is not substantial, or the gift is an unsolicited item of nominal value.

  9. Establishing Remediation and Disciplinary Action: Establish the actions DHS/DAS will require a Title III program to take to remedy or remove such conflicts, as well as disciplinary actions to be applied for violations of such standards by officers, employees, or agents of the Title III programs.

  10. Documenting Conflict Mitigation Strategies for Adult Protective Services (APS) or Adult Guardianship Programs (AGP): Document conflict of interest mitigation strategies, as necessary and appropriate, when a State agency or Title III program operates an APS or AGP programs.

Defining Individual and Organizational Conflicts for OAA Individual conflicts include:

  1. an employee or immediate member of an employee’s family, maintaining ownership, employment, consultancy, or fiduciary interest in a Title III program organization or awardee when the employee or immediate family member is in a position to derive personal benefit from actions or decisions made in their official capacity;

  2. one or more conflicts between the private interests and the official responsibilities of a person in a position of trust;

  3. one or more conflicts between completing duties; and

  4. other conflicts of interest identified in guidance issued by the Assistant Secretary for Aging and/or by State agency policies.

Organizational conflicts include:

  1. one or more conflicts between competing duties, programs and/or services; and

  2. other conflicts of interest identified in guidance issued by the Assistant Secretary for Aging and/or by State agency policies.

In addition to the general conflict of interest rules for the State Agency, the new OAA regulations added specific parameters around review of and avoidance of conflicts of interest for the Legal Services Developer.

The State Agency shall develop and implement policies and procedures to ensure that the Legal Assistance Developer is not either permitted nor required to perform duties or to hold positions that would constitute an actual or perceived conflict of interest. Further, the State Agency must also identify processes for preventing conflict of interests and for removing or remedying the conflict once identified.

The State agency must consider any potential conflicts of interest posed by any candidate for the role, and if interested in that candidate must take steps to remediate such actual or potential conflicts at the time of candidate selection.

The State agency shall not designate nor employ as Legal Assistance Developer any individual who is also:

  1. Serving as director of adult protective services or as legal counsel to adult protective services;

  2. Serving as State Long-Term Care Ombudsman or as legal counsel to the Office of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman;

  3. Service as a hearing officer, administrative law judge, trier of fact or counsel to these positions in any administrative proceeding related to legal rights of older adults;

  4. Serving as legal counsel or a party to matters related to long-term care settings;

  5. Conducting surveys of and licensure certifications for long-term care settings or serving as counsel or advisor to such positions; or

  6. Serving as a public or private guardian, conservator, or fiduciary, operating such a program, or serving as legal counsel to such a program

45 CFR § 1324.303

State Law on State Employee Conflicts of Interest

Georgia State law also has specific codes sections that apply for Conflicts of Interests in addition to the OAA regulations. The State Agency, as a part of DHS and with all of DHS, is required to be in compliance with both.

The Georgia General Assembly states as the intent of such rules that it is essential to the proper operation of democratic government that public officials be independent and impartial, that governmental decisions and policy be made in the proper channels of the governmental structure, that public office not be used for private gain other than the remuneration provided by law, and that there be public confidence in the integrity of government. But that it is also essential to the proper operation of government that those best qualified be encouraged to serve the government. Accordingly, legal safeguards against conflicts of interest must be so designed as not unnecessarily or unreasonably to impede the recruitment and retention by the government of those men and women who are best qualified to serve it.

As it applies to the State Agency, it shall be unlawful for any full-time employee, for himself or on behalf of any business or for any business in which such employee or member of his family has a substantial interest to transact any business with the agency by which such employee is employed. There are specific exemptions in the Code, such as but not limited to projects which have been through competitive bidding and family members who are medical or mental health practitioners who receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement and other cases. Any public official or employee whose family does transact business with the state or any agency thereof must disclose such transactions annually to the State Ethics Commission on a specific disclosure form which is due prior to January 31 each year. That form and more information is available at: doas.ga.gov/human-resources-administration/governors-code-ethics .

O.C.G.A. §§ 45-10-20 et seq DOAS form for submission

State Law on Ethics

Located in the State Code at O.C.G.A. § 45-10-1, there is a simple Code of Ethics for government workers. This is closely tied to the State Conflicts of Interests rules but must also be adhered to. This law requires that:

Any person in government service should:

  1. Put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country above loyalty to persons, party, or government department.

  2. Uphold the Constitution, laws, and legal regulations of the United States and the State of Georgia and of all governments therein and never be a party to their evasion.

  3. Give a full day’s labor for a full day’s pay and give to the performance of his duties his earnest effort and best thought.

  4. Seek to find and employ more efficient and economical ways of getting tasks accomplished.

  5. Never discriminate unfairly by the dispensing of special favors or privileges to anyone, whether for remuneration or not, and never accept, for himself or his family, favors or benefits under circumstances which might be construed by reasonable persons as influencing the performance of his governmental duties.

  6. Make no private promises of any kind binding upon the duties of office, since a government employee has no private word which can be binding on public duty.

  7. Engage in no business with the government, either directly or indirectly, which is inconsistent with the conscientious performance of his governmental duties.

  8. Never use any information coming to him confidentially in the performance of governmental duties as a means for making private profit.

  9. Expose corruption wherever discovered.

  10. Uphold these principles, ever conscious that public office is a public trust.

O.C.G.A. §§ 45-10-1 through § 45-10-5

References

Older Americans Act

  • 45.C.F.R. § 1321.47 Conflicts of interest policies and procedures for State agencies

  • 45 C.F.R. § 1324.303

  • O.C.G.A. § 45-10-1 et seq

  • O.C.G.A. § 45-10-20 et seq