Case 1: Botswana Minister of Defence
While i definitely agree with you that to some extend logically and from a fair minded person there is clear conflict of interest, its unfortunate that our beloved country does not have a law on declaration of assets for people who holds such important position such as this particular case. As such conflict of interest have been left to company constitution, but when it comes to public assets it is going to always be difficult for us to put a line as to when really does an action amount to conflict of interest.
The laws of Botswana entitles any citizen or business who has capabilities to apply for government tenders, and just because a company belonging to his wife won the contracts does not mean this amounts to conflict of interest, unless only if we have solid prove that those tenders were awarded not on merits, which is difficult to prove. So this raises a question as to whether we are saying a relative cannot get a contract from the ministry you are holding because in public view it will amount to conflict of interest, i bet no because that will be denying them their entitlements as citizens or business operating in Botswana.
Seretse himself has come out and threatened to sue, on the basis of defamation of character, like you mentioned he does not see anything wrong with the linkage between his duty as a minister and awarding contracts to a company in which he was once a director.
NB: Those said contracts were awarded while he was a director, and as a company director, he needs to act in the best interest of the company. here is one interesting blog post on duties of company directors in Malaysia, take your time to read through( http://readinglaw.wordpress.com/category/company-law/), but at that time he was also a Minister of Defence meaning he had to act in the best interest of the public........... and this is where the conflict of interest lies
In his augment he says that he has long resigned from his position as the director of the company few months after he assumed office as the said Minister. This on its own takes the pressure of him because he is not directly in anyway related to the company but rather indirectly related through his wife. So this becomes a tricky scenario.
So to establishing whether conflict of interest does exist in this case a complicated issue, more also that awrding a contract is procedural and passes through many stages before being approved, the minister himself propably just signs after the analysis and recomendations by his surbodinates
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