Gifts made to influence decisions
An employee must not accept or solicit any gift, favor or service
that might reasonably tend to influence the employee in the
discharge of their official duties or that the employee knows or
should know is being offered with the intent to influence the
employee’s official conduct.
Additional information may be found at
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/Ethics/Ethguide.htm
(UT System Ethics Policy)
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/Ethics/guidenew.htm
(OGC Guidelines on Giving and Receiving Benefits).
Gifts from persons doing business with UTSA and/or UT System
An employee must not solicit, accept or agree to accept any benefit
from a person the employee knows may have a business relationship
with UT System or UTSA, except as permitted under Section 36.10
of the Texas Penal Code. If in doubt, an individual should not accept
a benefit offered because of his or her status as a UTSA employee,
under Texas Penal Code,
Section 36.08.
| Q:As a department head, I have been working
with a UTSA vendor for several years.
This vendor recently offered to do some landscaping work for me at a substantial
discount. May I let him landscape my yard? |
| A:No. A substantial discount would mean that
the vendor was giving you special service with
the expectation that you could provide continued
or additional UTSA business for
this vendor. |
Gifts to UTSA
Faculty and staff are not authorized to accept gifts or endowments
on behalf of the university. The Development Office or the individual
college development offices handle this process.
Additional information may be found at
http://www.utsa.edu/hop/Chapter9/9-23.cfm.
Honoraria
An employee must not solicit, accept or agree to accept an honorarium
(payment, compensation, fee, etc.) in consideration for services he or
she performs if the employee would not have been asked to provide
those services except for the employee’s official position or duties at
UTSA. For example, an employee may not accept a gift or payment for
giving a speech if the employee’s official position was a reason for his/her being asked to give the speech. The employee may, however, accept
meals, transportation and lodging in connection with a speech as long
as his/her speech is more than merely perfunctory. Also, the employee
may accept a gift that is not a “benefit” such as a plaque or something
of minimal value like a coffee cup, key chain or baseball cap.
Additional information may be found at
http://www.utsystem.edu/ogc/Ethics/guidenew.htm.
| Q:A corporation is donating some used
equipment to my department and provided
a gift agreement requiring a signature from
UTSA. May the faculty member who will use
the equipment sign the agreement? |
| A:No. Contact the Development Office for
instructions on handling the agreement. |
|
