CYIL vol. 14 (2023)

HELENA VAN BEERSEL KREJČÍKOVÁ CYIL 14 (2023) e.g., non-governmental organizations (even if non-remunerated), resulting in competing duties of loyalty between one entity the person owes a duty to and another person or entity to whom the person owes a duty 84 ). The AGA illustratively specifies the measures (in particular) as: refraining from taking any action which may bring persons concerned into a situation of conflict of interest; taking appropriate measures to prevent conflicts of interest from arising in the tasks under their responsibility; taking appropriate measures to address any situations which may objectively be perceived as a conflict of interest and reporting any conflict of interest, or situations that could be perceived as a conflict of interest. According to AGA, the beneficiaries are obliged to avoid conflicts of interest, irrespective of whether these conflicts actually affect quality (e.g., a conflict of interest leads to persons/ contractors not best qualified for the work) or cost (e.g., a conflict of interest leads to the award of (sub)contracts or purchases not offering the best value for money or lowest price), or whether the persons involved gain any benefit (or not). It is recommended as best practice that the beneficiary has a system in place that allows (at least) persons working on the action to declare conflicts of interest and which provides clear rules for addressing such situations. Awareness-raising activities should be carried out regularly. 85 The beneficiaries must formally notify the granting authority without delay of any situation constituting or likely to lead to a conflict of interest and immediately take all the necessary steps to rectify this situation. The granting authority may verify that the measures taken are appropriate and may require additional measures to be taken by a specified deadline 86 (e.g., the requirement by the granting authority to put in place certain measures, in particular for persons with a perceivable risk of conflict of interest to withdraw from any decision-making that could affect their direct or indirect interest). If beneficiaries breach any of their obligations under Art. 12 of the General Model Grant Agreement, the grant may be reduced 87 , or the grant or the participation of the beneficiaries may be terminated 88 . In addition to these most severe consequences of non-compliance with Art. 12 of the General Model Grant Agreement, there are other measures enlisted in Article 27 and ff. of the General Model Grant Agreement, i.e., rejection of costs and contribution; payment deadline suspension; payment suspension; grant agreement suspension. The Czech Republic In the Czech Republic, to date there has not been any extensive special attention paid to conflicts of interest in medicine or medical research, nor have they been systematically studied,

84 Cf. AGA, p. 157. 85 Ibid.

86 Art. 12 of the General Model Grant Agreement. 87 Art. 28 of the General Model Grant Agreement. 88 Art. 32 of the General Model Grant Agreement.

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