Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Hosein Aslipour ¹
• Hosein Jamour ²
• Maliheh Rabiei ³
• Niloufar Mozafari ²

¹ Associate Professor, Department of Public Administration, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran; Head of the Management Studies Division, Research Center of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (Parliament)

² Faculty of Management and Accounting, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, and Researcher at Islamic Parliament Research Center (IPRC), Tehran, Iran.)

³ PhD in Islamic Philosophy of Education, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran / Researcher at Islamic Parliament Research Center (IPRC) (Corresponding Author).

Abstract

Conflict of interest is considered one of the fundamental issues in the domains of law and management .The purpose of this research is to analyze the experiences of the country's executive bodies in the field of conflict of interest management regulation and to provide practical solutions for improving the process of refining and approving the conflict of interest management bill. This research is qualitative in terms of methodology and applied in terms of objective. Using thematic analysis and conducting in-depth semi-structured interviews with 21 officials and senior experts in conflict of interest management in executive bodies, effective solutions for drafting and implementing the conflict of interest management law were identified. The interviews resulted in 2 overarching themes, 6 organizing themes, and 36 basic themes. Based on the findings, regulation in this area faces multiple challenges at three levels: a) legal (including the overlap of new regulations with previous laws and the lack of a comparative evaluation mechanism), b) institutional (including organizational conflict of interest in regulatory bodies and parallel institutionalization), and c) executive (including weak enforcement guarantees, failure to distinguish between conflict of interest management and unnecessary restrictions, and lack of independence of the supervisory body). Cases such as the necessity of avoiding unnecessary restrictions, overlapping and integration with subsequent existing laws, attention to structural (systemic) conflicts of interest, considering structural distinctions between service, production/economic organizations in conflict of interest management, and also the phased (experimental) implementation of the law, were among the proposals of the bodies to address the challenges.