Report of Governance & Constitutional Committee on Councillor Payments 24/06/05
Draft Policy on Councillor Payments
N.B. For this document the term “Councillor” includes all elected persons sitting at the Council table including Officers of the Society. The term "Projects" includes identified work whether the work has been officially specified as "a Project" for use by the PMO or not. The term "Committee" includes all sub-groups of Council including but not limited to: Task Forces, Standing Committees, Working Groups, Steering Committees.
Policy on Councillor payment for involvement in InternetNZ Projects
In all procedures included below where any specified work is undertaken by a sitting Councillor for payment the Councillor then becomes a de facto contractor for the Society and therefore comes under the authority of the Executive Director. In such circumstances, the Councillor must report to the ED in an agreed manner and at agreed intervals as well as to any Council designated person, such as a Project Sponsor.
A. Decisions concerning the allocation of projects to Councillors that carry an honorarium element must be made only by Council at an approved meeting and approval must be given prior to any work being undertaken.
B. Any project based honoraria will be calculated at considerably below a commercial rate to take account of the voluntary element of the work. Amounts considered could be any rate but a level of around 33% up to a maximum of 50% of current market rates may be appropriate. The Society’s Members principally agreed to the honorarium being a bulk sum, calculating any such honorarium as a roughly related to the total estimated time commitment. The amount of honorarium and allocation of the work must be approved by Council prior to the commencement of any agreed work being undertaken. The concerned Councillor may not participate in discussion or debate, nor indicate the amount of payment, at Council on this matter. In addition, to avoid the perception of self-dealing:
- Sub Group Chairs : In cases where Council deem an honorarium can be paid to a Councillor for undertaking specific work, Chairs of Committees and other sub-structures of Council, may not be considered for work concerning their Committee. Chairs must resign their position before being eligible.
- Existing Project Leaders : In cases where Council has already approved a Councillor in the position of Project Leader, the Project Leader may not considered for such work if the work concerns their project.
C. Projects identified as being open to commercial bidding (to external consultants) will not be open for Councillors to bid for as a normal commercial project, and will not be conducted using the honorarium-based approach described above. For the avoidance of doubt:
- A person cannot be a contractor and Councillor simultaneously therefore:
- No sitting Councillor may apply for any contracted work for the Society.
- Any Councillor wishing to bid for contract work must resign their position on Council prior to undertaking any such work.
D. On the rare occasions where an external contract is being let and a Councillor is directly concerned by a company that is a potential bidder for the contract, the Councillor must fully and clearly identify the conflict of interest and recuse themselves from all participation in Council discussion and decisions concerning the work or the contract from that moment. Failure to do so contravenes the current code of ethics of the Society. For the avoidance of doubt:
- No company may apply for work from the Society with the intention of using the Councillor to undertake the specified work.
- No Councillor may use a company to obtain, or apply to obtain, work from the Society where the Councillor is to be the person undertaking the work.
- Sole traders, whether constituted as a limited liability company or otherwise, are not permitted to apply for work from the Society where the Councillor is the trader.
E. If, due to a failure of the commercial bidding process, a Councillor who has been part of the construction of the project specification becomes involved directly as project leader/manager, or indirectly if the matter is handled by an external entity with which the Councillor has some connection, e.g. as employee or contractor, a conflict of interest is created and so a full declaration of such conflict must be made to the Society and noted on the InternetNZ web site at the first moment this becomes clear. Rules A through D above must be rigorously applied in such situations.
F. If a project is changed from a commercial project to an “internal” project where Council accept that it the project can be identified as attracting an honorarium for undertaking by a Councillor, the Councillor available for the work must recuse themselves as soon as possible from any further Council discussion or decisions on progressing the work. Rules A through C must be rigorously applied in such situations.
G. Councillors identified to undertake any paid roles, such as project leader/manager, will be those that Council agree (accept) is the best person to undertake the role, e.g. due to their position, or because of their personal capabilities/skill-set. All rules above must be observed and rigorously applied in all situations.
