Ethics Training
Definitions
Exam
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1. Tour
Julie is a senior official with the Department of Corrections and has responsibility for food and food service in the state’s prisons. The Department has been approached by a prospective vendor, Meals Ready To Eat, Inc., that wants to supply the Department with pre-cooked and prepackaged meals. Julie’s recommendations as to suppliers carry great weight with the Department, and if a contract is entered into Julie will be in charge of superintending it. The company is an employer of a lobbyist, and Julie has been invited by the company’s lobbyist to come to its out-of-state plant for a tour. The Department will pay her travel expenses. Part of the tour will consist of samples of all the pre-cooked and prepackaged meals that the company proposes to provide to the Department. After Julie asks, the lobbyist explains that they give the tour and the samples to all prospective customers.
Do the free samples pose a problem?
The correct answer is (d).
T.C.A. § 3-6-305(b)(4) provides that the gift ban does not apply to “sample merchandise, promotional items, and appreciation tokens, if such merchandise, items and tokens are routinely given to customers, suppliers or potential customers or suppliers in the ordinary course of business.” There is no distinction under this exception between in-state and out-of-state events.
While T.C.A. § 3-6-301(16(C) provides that the term “lobby” does not encompass “communications by an incumbent or prospective contractor or vendor, or an employee of the contractor or vendor, while engaged in selling or marketing to the state, or any department or agency of the state, by demonstrating or describing goods or services to be provided or by inquiring about specifications, terms, conditions, timing, or similar commercial information,” the section goes on to provide that the T.C.A. § 3-6-305 gift ban applies in situations where the communication is made to an official in the executive branch whose duty it is to vote for, let out, overlook, or in any manner to superintend any work or any contract so marketed or sold. Julie falls into this category of official.
