The Commissioner of the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), Mr Justice Emile Short, has accused some public office holders of willfully violating constitutional provisions relating to conflict of interest. Others, he noted, were also violating the provisions unconsciously. He was speaking at a workshop organised jointly by CHRAJ and the Ghana Integrity Initiative (GII) to promote awareness of and solicit support for the new guidelines on conflict of interest compiled by CHRAJ. The participants were mainly Members of Parliament (MPs). Mr Justice Short cited examples to buttress his point, saying that CHRAJ had investigated allegations of assembly members awarding district assembly contracts to themselves. He noted that in response to the dire need to address the situation where public officials either consciously or unconsciously violated constitutional provisions, CHRAJ decided to compile the guidelines on conflict of interest to assist public officials to identify, manage and resolve conflicts of interest. "Since the Constitution itself or any other law did not set out any guidelines as to what conduct constitutes conflict of interest, the Commission decided to develop a comprehensive set of guidelines for the benefit of all public officers," he added. Mr Justice Short stressed that conflict of interest arose where there was a clash between the personal interest of a public official and that of the general public which placed its trust and confidence in the public officer to act in its interest. He explained further that "the appearance of a conflict of interest is present if there is a potential for the personal interest of the public officer to clash with the performance of the functions of his or her office". A Deputy Commissioner of CHRAJ, Ms Anna Bossman, outlined the mandate of the Commission, saying that it was set up to foster a culture of respect for human rights in Ghana, promote freedom and justice in the society and good governance. According to her, central to good governance was the issue of ethics and good standards in public life, which implied that the public official must serve in the interest of the public with fairness. The Programmes Manager of the GII, Mrs Linda Ofori-Kwafo, said its main vision was to make Ghana a corruption-free country. She stressed that it was important for public officials not to allow their interests and affiliations to influence the decisions that they made, since that could undermine the public's confidence in them. Among the MPs present at the workshop were the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alhaji Malik Alhassan Yakubu, the Minority Leader, Mr Alban Bagbin, and the MPs for Ningo Prampram and Ashiaman, Messrs E.T. Mensah and Alfred Agbesi, respectively. Source: Daily Graphic