Part 5: Conflicts of interest Section 82: Conflicts of interest: duty to mitigate
Subsection (1) places a duty on the contracting authority to take all reasonable steps to mitigate conflicts of interest, so that a supplier is not placed at an unfair advantage or disadvantage compared to other suppliers in relation to the specific covered procurement.
	Subsection (2) sets out that taking reasonable steps may also include requiring a supplier to take steps as well.
	Subsections (3) and (4) set out that where a conflict of interest puts a supplier at an advantage in respect of a specific covered procurement that can not be avoided, or the supplier will not take necessary steps to ensure that it is not afforded an unfair advantage, then the supplier is to be treated as being an excluded supplier in the context of that specific procurement. An excluded supplier under this section is not treated as an excluded supplier other than in the procurement where the unavoidable conflict of interest occurred. As a result, the risk of a conflict continuing or occurring again (i.e. self-cleaning) is not relevant, the time periods during which events can be taken into account for the purpose of exclusions are not applicable and this cannot be used as a ground for a Minister to put the supplier on the debarment list.
	Subsection (5) refers back to the meaning of conflict of interest provided in section 81 (conflicts of interest: duty to identify). Whilst "conflict of interest" is not a defined term, by inference, a conflict of interest is where a personal, professional or financial interest of a relevant person, as set out in section 81, could conflict with the integrity of the procurement.