FCSA NEWS BULLETIN

Spotting and Speaking Up About Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI)

As we move through the public tender and project execution phases, this is a timely reminder of Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) and the practical steps we can take to stay fair, transparent, and compliant.

What is OCI? An OCI happens when our roles, relationships, or access to information could create a potential, perceived, or actual risk of unfair competitive advantage, bias, or impaired objectivity.

A few common examples:

• Helping prepare a tender (scope, criteria, evaluation) and later bidding on it
• Holding an advisory or project-management role while also acting as a contractor or OEM on the same project
• Undisclosed employment or relationships that affect tender evaluation

FCSA is committed to transparency and fairness in public tenders and to full compliance with competition and public procurement laws. Under Romanian law, when an OCI arises, we must assess whether it can be effectively remedied.

Here’s where you come in:

Speak up early. Promptly disclose any potential or actual OCI to the Project Governance & Compliance Director, so it can be discussed with the relevant JV partners and appropriate steps can be taken to address it.

Depending on the situation, mitigating measures may include:

• Complete separation between FCSA partners and bidding supplier/contractor teams
• Restricted access to commercially sensitive information (pricing, cost, strategy) and workspaces
• No project-specific meetings or communications between conflicted parties
• Exclusion from the procurement role if the conflict can’t be mitigated

The bottom line: if something feels like it might be a conflict, raise it.

Early disclosure protects you, the project, and FCSA.

Thank you for helping us keep every tender fair.

Michael Jansen, FCSA Governance & Compliance Director