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The Ghana Integrity Initiative, in its fourth Monthly Press Release, wishes to remind all public officers who contested their parties� primaries, and are proceeding to contest the general elections in December, that it is time for them to resign their public positions. In fact, they should have resigned before contesting their parties� primaries but escaped the watching eyes of the electorate. GII bases its call on the relevant provisions of the Constitution, the Criminal Code, 1960 (Act 29), the Representation of the People Law, 1992, (PNDCL 284), as amended, and the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574). Article 94 (3) of the 1992 Constitution of the Republic of Ghana states that �A person shall not be eligible to be a member of Parliament if he: (a) is prohibited from standing election by a law in force in Ghana by reason of his holding or acting in an office the functions of which involve a responsibility for or are connected with the conduct of, an election or responsibility for, the compilation or revision of an electoral register; or (b) is a member of the Police Service, the Prisons Service, the Armed Forces, the Judicial Service, the Legal Service, the Civil Service, the Audit Service, the Parliamentary Service, the Statistical Service, the Fire Service, the Customs, Excise and Preventive Service, the Immigration Service, or the Internal Revenue Service; or (c) is a Chief�. This is further elaborated by Section 26 of the Political Parties Act, 2000 (Act 574) which states that: (1) A chief or any other person who is not eligible to be elected to Parliament does not qualify to, (a) be a founding member, a leader or a member of the executive of a political party; or (b) hold office in a political party. (2) A chief or a public officer shall not engage in canvassing in support of or against a political party or a candidate standing for a public election. Moreover, Ghana�s 1992 Constitution imposes a conflict of interest injunction on all public officers under Article 284 which states that: A public officer shall not put himself in a position where his personal interest conflicts or is likely to conflict with the performance of the functions of his office. Clearly, a Civil Servant who declares his/her support by canvassing in support of a political party or a candidate standing for election puts him/herself in a Conflict of Interest situation. Sections 3(1) and (5) of the Criminal Code 1960 (Act 29) define a �Public officer� as: (1) "Public officer" includes any person holding an office by election or appointment under any enactment or under powers conferred by any enactment. (5) It is immaterial, for the purposes of this section, whether a person is or is not entitled to any salary or other remuneration in respect of the duties of his office. Thus, being a public officer does not necessarily include payment or remuneration from the public purse. A political party is a private association of individuals with political objectives that seek to influence government. When a member of that organization is elected or appointed to a public office, that person becomes a public officer and is governed by Article 284 and other rules. If that officer uses his office or public resources to benefit his party and give his party an advantage he or she is placed in a conflict of interest situation. The penalty for breaching this law in Section 30 of the Act is as follows: (1) Any person who contravenes a provision of this Act commits an offence. (3) An offence under this Act, unless otherwise specifically provided for, shall be punishable with a fine not exceeding ten million cedis or a term of imprisonment not exceeding two years or both. The Code of conduct for Civil Servants pursuant to the Civil Service Law 1993, PNDCL 327 also states that civil servants: Cannot accept any office paid or unpaid in any political party; Cannot declare membership of a political party; Cannot indicate publicly support of the political party; Cannot make speeches or join demonstrations in favour of a political party. Although there is no clear sanction for breach of the code, the Head of Civil Service can consult on breaches and determine appropriate action. Based on all these provisions GII, as an anti-corruption watchdog, wishes to: Call on all public officers who campaigned for elections as parliamentary candidates at their parties� primaries to resign immediately, if they have not already done so; Call on the Head of the Civil Service and the Chairman of the Public Services Commission to take steps to identify all public officers who have publicly declared their party affiliation and sanction them accordingly, if they have not already resigned; Call on all public officers who are affected by the above laws and who contested their parties� primaries and lost should automatically lose their public positions as, by contesting on a political party ticket, they have publicly declared their support for a political party; Call on the Head of the Civil Service and the Public Service Commission to resist any attempt to compel them to reinstate public officers who resigned to contest the primaries as they have publicly declared their party affiliation; Call on the Head of the Civil Service and the Chairman of the Public Service Commission to sanction all public officers who took leave to go and contest their parties� primaries as they have publicly declared their party affiliation; Call on the appropriate authorities to sanction all public officers who continue to appear in the media or political party platforms to speak on behalf of any political party or are seen wearing party paraphernalia. The public officers targeted by this Press Release are defined by the appropriate laws quoted here. Signed Vitus A. Azeem Executive Director � GII