Conflict of interest is a set of circumstances that creates a risk that professional judgment or actions regarding a primary interest will be unduly influence by a secondary interest.
Primary interest refers to the principal goals of the profession or activity, such as the protection of clients, the health of patients, the integrity of research, and the duties of public office.
On the other hand secondary interest motives as the desire for professional advancement and the wish to do favors for family and friends, conflicts of interest doesn’t only include financial gain but also it focuses on financial relationship because they are relatively more objective, fungible, and quantifiable. The secondary interest are not treated as wrong in themselves, but become objectionable when they are believed to have greater weight than the primary interest
Conflict of interest has been defined by many authors in divers’ ways some of which include:
Michael Mc Donald(achieved from the original 2007-11-03) define a conflict of interest as "a situation in which a person, such as a public official, an employee, or a professional, has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties.
He also grouped them in to three basic elements;
Private and Personal interest, often this is a financial interest, but it could also be another sort of interest, say, to provide a special advantage to a spouse or child. Taken by themselves, there is nothing wrong with pursuing private or personal interests, for instance, changing jobs for more pay or helping your daughter improve her golf stroke. "Official duty" -- quite literally the duty you have because you have an office or act in an official capacity. As a professional you take on certain official