Certainly, this is the kind of situation where one of the standard difficulties for senior leaders and other kinds of decision-makers in organizations is the feeling of “My mission comes first: I've got to get this thing done.” Sometimes, or often, that is entirely well intentioned. There's the perception that they're trying to get something important done. Of course, that is precisely why we have things like the Conflict of Interest Act, as reminders that we need to take a moment and say that it's not just what we get done but how we get it done.
That's what makes this kind of complicated and interesting from an educational point of view. Thinking that a mistake was made here doesn't require thinking that the decision-makers were bad people, and thinking that things went perfectly in this case doesn't require thinking that the people involved were angels. It's a lot more complicated.
I have the luxury of saying “interesting”, because it's interesting from an academic point of view, but it's challenging for you folks.