Wow. Great question. The work described above focused on strategy, org design, finance, and governance. We spent less time on ongoing operations and very little time on protocol operations, which is where this kind of decision might fall in relation to grant execution and the COI (conflict of interest).
But the COI is often not well understood. In Roberts Rules of Order (my go to for classic governance questions) the COI guidance is:
“No member should vote on a question in which he has a direct personal or pecuniary interest not common to other members of the organization”
But, it clarified that:
“no member can be compelled to refrain from voting in such circumstances” (RONR pg. 407, ll. 22-31).
Unless:
Organizational guidance prohibits participation.
Other bodies expand this to include “the perception of a COI” given that is often as damaging as an actual COI. At the DAO governance layer, Gitcoin prohibits participation in DAO governance votes where there is a COI. You can see that here Gitcoin DAO Governance Process v3. This document is however limited to DAO governance, not protocol or grant governance.
For protocol governance, I think I know the answer, but will ping @benwest for guidance.
Somewhat. We did an audit some months back focused on workstream and treasury operations, but it did not look at stewards or payment receivers. I do not see the results of that audit on the forum, let me go poke around and see what I can find.
Great questions and thank for the engagement - I believe the more people we have poking under the hood we get, the better we will become.