A conflict of interest can be viewed as two conflicting
roles, wherein the one entailing more public responsibility is compromised or
eclipsed by the other. The ongoing temptation itself may be sufficient grounds
ethically to end or transfer the potentially exploitive role. In other words,
sometimes the solution is as simple as ending the potentially encroaching task
or role. When the institution is a governmental agency, selecting or creating
another agency to perform the task is one alternative; privatizing it is
another. Either way, deconstructing an institutional conflict of interest by
separating problematic role-combinations is advisable even in cases in which
the more private-benefits role has not corrupted the more public-benefits role.
The U.S. Department of Education provides a useful case in point.
The complete essay is at “U.S.
Department of Education.”
