Duties
Article 7
1. Experts shall assist GSC officials and other staff and carry out the tasks assigned to them. The duties to be carried out by an expert shall be defined by mutual agreement between the GSC and the employer: (a) in the interest of the GSC department to which the expert is seconded; and (b) taking into account the expert's qualifications. 2. Tasks to be assigned to an expert may include among others analyses, studies, exchanges of knowledge between administrations, project management, and assistance to the GSC's groups and preparatory committees. Notwithstanding the first subparagraph of paragraph 1 and the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the Secretary-General may, on a proposal from the Director-General of the department to which an expert is assigned, entrust the expert with specific duties and charge the expert with the conduct of one or more specific missions after verifying that there is no conflict of interest. 3. An expert shall take part in missions and meetings only: (a) if accompanying a GSC official or other staff member; or (b) if alone, as an observer or solely for information purposes. Unless an expert has received a special mandate, in accordance with the arrangements for implementing this Decision, by the Director-General of the GSC department concerned, the expert shall not be able to commit the GSC externally. 4. The GSC shall retain sole responsibility for approving the results of tasks performed by the expert. 5. The GSC departments concerned, the expert's employer and the expert shall make every effort to avoid any actual or potential conflict of interest in relation to the expert's duties during secondment. To that end, the GSC shall, in good time, inform the expert and the employer of the intended duties and shall ask each of them to confirm in writing that they know of no reason why the expert should not be assigned to those duties. The expert shall be asked in particular to declare any potential conflict between the expert's family circumstances (in particular the professional activities of close or extended family members, or any important financial interests of their own or of family members) and the proposed duties while on secondment. The employer and the expert shall undertake to notify the GSC of any change of circumstances during the secondment which could give rise to any conflict of interest. 6. Where the GSC considers that the nature of the tasks entrusted to the expert requires particular security precautions, security clearance shall be obtained before the expert is seconded. 7. In the event of failure to comply with the provisions of paragraphs 2, 3 and 5 of this Article, the GSC may terminate the secondment of the expert under the terms of point (c) of Article 10(2).