Conflicts of interest – global – translations
RICS Rules of Conduct set an overarching obligation on both members and RICS regulated firms at all times to: ‘…act with integrity and avoid conflicts of interest and avoid any actions or situations that are inconsistent with its professional obligations.’
Effective identification and management of conflicts of interest is a challenging but essential component of professionalism.
In March 2017, RICS released this global professional statement giving RICS professionals a number of months to familiarise themselves with the new rules. Following industry feedback, the following additional commentary notes have been added to provide clarification:
*Competing bidders
*Effective date / transition
*Conflicts arising during professional assignments
*Passing confidential information to insurers and legal advisers
This professional statement, which supports the RICS Rules of Conduct, also places an overarching mandatory requirement on all RICS members and regulated firms and specifies RICS’ expectations of how compliance with the Rules of Conduct should be achieved.
This document takes effect from 1 January 2018 and is in 3 parts. Parts 2 and 3 contain guidance, and should be read in conjunction with the mandatory requirements in Part 1.
A professional statement was published in May 2017 to deal with UK-specific issues in the commercial property market, Conflicts of interest: UK commercial property market investment agency, 1st edition, available at http://isurv.com/site/scripts/download_info.aspx?downloadID=2158