The hall management committee/trustees are discussing some structural changes to the hall and a member of the committee who is a builder offers to do the work 'on the cheap:
- The offer should be rejected on the grounds that no member may financially benefit from their position as a trustee
- The builder should be invited to submit a tender and told he will be excluded from all further discussions on the matter as he has an interest in the outcome
- The committee should gratefully accept the offer as it is obviously is going to save a lot of time and effort as well as money
It is so tempting to take offers like this! They are usually well meant and nothing underhand is being proposed. In making the offer the builder has nothing but the best of intentions and every one knows that they probably won't get a better offer. Option 3 is so, so tempting but it is just not right!
There are again two issues. Firstly, it is true that under charity law no trustee (and therefore committee member) is allowed to directly financially benefit from that post and may not use their position to gain advantages over others. Secondly, the committee have a responsibility for financial prudence and may be, despite such an offer being tempting, there are better offers to be had and so tendering is the only way to find out.
There is nothing to stop this trustee tendering for the work PROVIDING they take no part in discussions and the decision making process. Indeed they should leave the room for the period of time the considerations are taking place. This is option 2 which is the correct answer here.
In some ways this kind of offer can be a further disservice to the committee. At a time when there is building work to be done the committee probably need the professional advice and input from the builder. By offering to do the work the builder excludes himself from providing the support the other trustees might value. Then there is the issue of what happens if something goes wrong! It can become very uncomfortable when the builder, for example, is doing the job for little profit and so gives priority to other more profitable projects and work on the hall's extension falls behind - plenty of cause for a fall out and conflict at the best of times but in a 'I'm doing you a favour' scenario this becomes very difficult to handle.