General Laws: CHAPTER 268A Section 6 

PART IV CRIMES , PUNI SHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN CRIMINAL CASES 

TITLE I CRIMES AND PUNI SHMEN TS 

CHAPTER 268A CONDUCT OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES 

Section 6 Financial interest of state employee , relat ive or associates ; disclosure 

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Section 6. (a) Except as permitted by this section, any state employee who participates as 

such employee in a particular matter in which to his knowledge he, his immediate family or 

partner, a business organization in which he is serving as officer, director, trustee, partner or 

employee, or any person or organization with whom he is negotiating or has any arrangement 

concerning prospective employment, has a financial interest, shall be punished by a fine of 

not more than $10,000, or by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 5 years, or in 

a jail or house of correction for not more than 2 1 /2 years, or both. 

Any state employee whose duties would otherwise require him to participate in such a 

particular matter shall advise the official responsible for appointment to his position and the 

state ethics commission of the nature and circumstances of the particular matter and make 

full disclosure of such financial interest, and the appointing official shall thereupon either 

(1) assign the particular matter to another employee; or 

(2) assume responsibility for the particular matter; or 

(3) make a written determination that the interest is not so substantial as to be deemed likely 

to affect the integrity of the services which the commonwealth may expect from the 

employee, in which case it shall not be a violation for the employee to participate in the 

particular matter. Copies of such written determination shall be forwarded to the state 

employee and filed with the state ethics commission by the person who made the 

determination. Such copy shall be retained by the commission for a period of six years. 

[There is no subsection (b).] 

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General Laws: CHAPTER 268 Section 6A 

PART IV CRIMES . PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN CR IMINAL CASES 

TITLE I CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS 

CHAPTER 268A COND UCT OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES 

Section 6A Conflict of interest of public officia l; reporting requirement 

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Section 6A. Any public official, as defined by section one of chapter two hundred and sixtyeight B, who in the discharge of his official duties would be required knowingly to take an 

action which would substantially affect such official's financial interests, unless the effect on 

such an official is no greater than the effect on the general public, shall file a written 

description of the required action and the potential conflict of interest with the state ethics 

commission established by said chapter two hundred and sixty-eight B. 

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General Laws: CHAPTER 268 Page 1of 1 

PART IV CRIMES , PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN CR IMINAL CASES 

TITLE I CRIMES AND PUN ISHMENTS 

CHAPTER 268A CONDUCT OF PUBL IC OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES 

Section 68 Candi dates for em pl oyment as state employee ; disclosure of relation to state employee 

Section 68. Each candidate for employment as a state employee shall be required by the 

hiring authority as part of the application process to disclose, in writing, the names of any 

state employee who is related to the candidate as: spouse, parent, child or sibling or the 

spouse of the candidate's parent, child or sibling. 

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The contents of a disclosure received under this section from an employee when such 

employee was a candidate shall be considered public records under section 7 of chapter 4 

and chapter 66. 

All disclosures made by applicants hired by a state agency shall be made available for public 

inspection to the extent permissible by law by the official with whom such disclosure has 

been filed. 

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General Laws: CHAPTER 268 

PART IV CRIMES, PUNISHMENTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN CRIMINAL CASES 

TITLE I CRIME S AND PUNISH MENTS 

CHAPTER 268A CONDUCT OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES 

Section 7 Financial intere st in con tracts of state ag ency ; applicatio n of section 

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Section 7. A state employee who has a financial interest, directly or indirectly, in a contract 

made by a state agency, in which the commonwealth or a state agency is an interested party, 

of which interest he has knowledge or has reason to know, shall be punished by a fine of not 

more than $10,000, or by imprisonment in the state prison for not more than 5 years, or in a 

jail or house of correction for not more than 2 1/2 years, or both. 

This section shall not apply if such financial interest consists of the ownership of less than 

one per cent of the stock of a corporation. 

This section shall not apply (a) to a state employee who in good faith and within thirty days 

after he learns of an actual or prospective violation of this section makes full disclosure of his 

financial interest to the contracting agency and terminates or disposes of the interest, or (b) to 

a state employee other than a member of the general court who is not employed by the 

contracting agency or an agency which regulates the activities of the contracting agency and 

who does not participate in or have official responsibility for any of the activities of the 

contracting agency, if the contract is made after public notice or where applicable, through 

competitive bidding , and if the state employee files with the state ethics commission a 

statement making full disclosure of his interest and the interests of his immediate family in the 

contract, and if in the case of a contract for personal services (1) the services will be provided 

outside the normal working hours of the state employee, (2) the services are not required as 

part of the state employee's regular duties, the employee is compensated for not more than 

five hundred hours during a calendar year, and (3) the head of the contracting agency makes 

and files with the state ethics commission a written certification that no employee of that 

agency is available to perform those services as a part of their regular duties, or (c) to the 

interest of a member of the general court in a contract made by an agency other than the 

general court or either branch thereof, if his direct and indirect interests and those of his 

immediate family in the corporation or other commercial entity with which the contract is 

made do not in the aggregate amount to ten per cent of the total proprietary interests therein, 

and the contract is made through competitive bidding and he files with the state ethics 

commission a statement making full disclosure of his interest and the interests of his 

immediate family or (d) to a special state employee who does not participate in or have 

official responsibility for any of the activities of the contracting agency and who fi les with the 

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General Laws: CHAPTER 268A. Section 7 Page 2 of2 

state ethics commission a statement making full disclosure of his interest and the interests of 

his immediate family in the contract, or (e) to a special state employee who files with the state 

ethics commission a statement making full disclosure of his interest and the interests of his 

immediate family in the contract, if the governor with the advice and consent of the executive 

council exempts him. 

This section shall not apply to a state employee who provides services or furnishes supplies, 

goods and materials to a recipient of public assistance, provided that such services or such 

supplies, goods and materials are provided in accordance with a schedule of charges 

promulgated by the department of transitional assistance or the division of health care policy 

and finance and provided , further, that such recipient has the right under law to choose and in 

fact does choose the person or firm that will provide such services or furnish such supplies, 

goods and materials. 

This section shall not prohibit a state employee from teaching or performing other related 

duties in an educational institution of the commonwealth; provided, that such employee does 

not participate in, or have official responsibility for, the financial management of such 

educational institution; and provided, further, that such employee is so employed on a parttime basis. Such employee may be compensated for such services, notwithstanding the 

provisions of section twenty-one of chapter thirty. 

This section shall not prohibit a state employee from being employed on a part-time basis by 

a facility operated or designed for the care of mentally ill or mentally retarded persons, public 

health, correctional facility or any other facility principally funded by the state which provides 

similar services and which operates on an uninterrupted and continuous basis; provided that 

such employee does not participate in, or have official responsibility for, the financial 

management of such facility, that he is compensated for such part-time employment for not 

more than four hours in any day in which he is otherwise compensated by the 

commonwealth, and at a rate which does not exceed that of a state employee classified in 

step one of job group XX of the general salary schedule contained in section forty-six of 

chapter thirty, and that the head of the facility makes and files with the state ethics 

commission a written certification that there is a critical need for the services of the employee. 

Such employee may be compensated for such services, notwithstanding the provisions of 

section twenty-one of chapter thirty. 

This section shall not preclude an officer or employee of the Massachusetts Port Authority 

from eligibility for any residential sound insulation program or the bayswater environmental 

program provided that the officer or employee has no responsibility for the administration for 

that program from which he is to receive the benefit. 

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