New Delhi, Sep 11 (UNI) A Round Table Conference on 'Conflict of Interest' held here on Tuesday, expressed concern that the Centre had not taken any action on situations of conflict of interest in health and nutrition policies that could have negative impact on public health and the economy.
The Round Table, organised by the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) and the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), urged the Centre to enact a legal framework to prevent and manage conflicts of interest. It said that conflict of interest is a precursor to corruption.
It asked the government to be guided by tools, suggested by international bodies, to identify and manage conflicts of interest in public policy/programmes.
The Round Table was attended, among others, by NITI Aayog Deputy Chairman Rajiv Kumar, Janata Dal (United) leader KC Tyagi and Member of PM Economic Advisory Committee Rathin Roy.
On the occasion, the meeting adopted a Declaration, which noted 'Conflicts of Interest can be institutional or personal and with the growing abundance of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) in the public policy sector--especially in the health and nutrition policies--involve complex relationships among the government actors and 'interested' partners'.
It recognised that 'there has been a global recommendation by the United Nations Convention against Corruption, (to which India is a signatory) that identifies conflicts of interest as a precursor to corruption'.
'Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides tools to identify, prevent and manage conflicts of interest; the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control on the protection of public health policies, with respect to tobacco control from commercial interests (ratified by Government of India ) and many countries have taken steps to develop mechanisms to prevent and detect conflict of interests,' the declaration said.
The Round Table recommended that the Centre and States should issue a notification for declaration of interests by all participants in all official meetings/related bodies/expert committees.
It also said that the government should issue guidelines to manage the conflict of interest.
UNI GP RJ 1921