The declaration form is where a conflict of interest programme succeeds or silently fails: ask vaguely and you collect nothing; ask well and the register almost writes itself. These are the design practices that separate forms people complete honestly from forms people click through.
Ask concrete questions, not abstract ones
"Do you have any conflicts of interest?" produces reflexive noes. Effective forms decompose the concept into concrete, answerable prompts: Do you or a close relative hold shares in any supplier, customer or competitor? Does any relative work in this organisation — where? Do you hold external board seats or side businesses? Have you received gifts or hospitality above the policy threshold this year? Each yes opens structured follow-ups (entity, relationship, value, since when) so reviewers receive data, not prose.
Design for honesty and completion
Keep the form under ten minutes; state plainly why the data is collected and who sees it (PDPL transparency doubles as reassurance); require a nil declaration rather than allowing silence — certifying "nothing to declare" is itself evidence of programme completeness; and make the annual campaign a certification with a deadline, reminders and escalation for non-completion. In Saudi organisations, publish the form in equal-quality Arabic and English.
Score and route, don’t just collect
Every submission should compute a preliminary risk score from the structured answers — counterparty type, relationship closeness, value, decision-making authority of the declarant. Low scores auto-acknowledge; medium route to line review; high go to compliance with a required management plan. This is the difference between a declarations archive and a declarations programme.
Close the loop with recusal and the register
Form data should flow automatically into the COI register and the recusal engine: a declared supplier shareholding must block the declarant from that supplier’s tender committee and from investigations touching the supplier — without a human having to remember. Raqeeb’s COI module handles the full cycle: campaign, form, scoring, plans, register, and auto-recusal inside case management.
- Decompose "any conflicts?" into concrete yes/no prompts with structured follow-ups.
- Require nil declarations — silence is not data.
- Auto-score submissions and route by risk.
- Wire declarations into automatic recusal, or the form is theatre.
Frequently asked questions
What questions should a COI declaration form ask?
Shareholdings in counterparties, relatives in the organisation or at counterparties, external board seats and side businesses, gifts and hospitality above thresholds, and any decision-making authority the declarant holds that intersects with those interests.
Should employees with nothing to declare still submit the form?
Yes — a certified nil declaration proves campaign completeness, gives auditors evidence, and removes the ambiguity of silence.
How is a declaration turned into action?
Risk-score it, route by score, decide (clear / management plan / recusal), record the decision in the register, and enforce recusals automatically in tendering and case management systems.
Whistleblowing, case management, conflict-of-interest and gifts registers — one Arabic-first platform, hosted entirely in the Kingdom.