Purchases by State Employees & Their Families

Conflict of Interest - Purchases by State Employees and Their Families

Except within the limits noted below, the Code of Virginia, § 2.2-3106 of the Conflict of Interests Act prohibits State employees and their immediate family from purchasing surplus property. An employee’s immediate family includes the employee’s spouse, and any other person living in the employee’s household who is a dependent of the employee or on whom the employee is dependent.

A $500 limit to purchasing surplus property applies to surplus property sales, such as auctions or internet sales, even if the State employee buyer works for a different agency than the selling agency. Employees of the selling agency should not purchase property if they influence the maintenance, surplusing, pricing or disposition of the property item. An exemption to the $500 limit applies if the property is purchased in any sale of surplus property at uniform (fixed) prices that are available to the public. Certain other exceptions are listed in Code of Virginia, § 2.2-3110, but these exceptions rarely apply to surplus property sales.