Our employees, who work for us and whom we pay, are promoting and selling their "access" based on the job we gave them to not benefit the employer but to benefit another organisation.

Now let's apply this to the private sector for those who work in the public sector and may not understand the conflict....

EXAMPLE: 
If a buyer, working for a large company, on their off hours advertised their position and role within that company and solicited to their vendors/potential suppliers that they could pay $100 to attend a fundraising event, which they will be attending, for their children's sports team, that person would be called in to the office Monday morning and would leave that office with a box full of their personal possessions. 

For those that paid the $100, they may now know how the company reviews purchase decisions, who is involved in those decisions, what projects are coming down the pipeline and how much that company is currently paying for existing supplies.