Sec. 19a.06.01.01. Purpose and Scope

A. General Provisions Article, §5-501, Annotated Code of Maryland, establishes nonparticipation requirements for employees and officials of the State when the official matter is one in which they have an interest or which involves as a party a business entity with which they have certain economic relationships. General Provisions Article, §5-502, prohibits these officials and employees from having a financial interest in an entity that is subject to their authority or that of an agency with which they are affiliated or that has or is negotiating a contract with the agency. Exception from the prohibitions of General Provisions Article, §§5-501 and 5-502, Annotated Code of Maryland, is provided for persons under the authority of the State Ethics Commission pursuant to regulations of the Commission where it determines that there is no conflict or appearance of conflict, and where the exception would not be inconsistent with the purposes of the Law.

B. The purpose of this subtitle is to define the circumstances under which a certified blind trust or an excepted blind trust would be viewed by the Commission as meeting the statutory criteria for exception from these conflict of interest provisions. An underlying concept is that, in situations where a trust is created by an independent third party or there are diversified holdings in a trust created by a government official or employee, and where the official or employee does not know the identity of the financial interests and does not control these interests, then his or her official actions would not be influenced or appear to be influenced by private interests. Thus, the general public policy goal to be achieved through reliance on a blind trust is an actual "blindness" or lack of knowledge or control by the official or employee with respect to the interests held in trust.