After lingering at the 52nd Legislature for several years, the draft code of conduct Bill is amongst several draft laws inherited by the 53rd Legislature that were either dumped into their archives or returned to the Executive for resubmission before deliberations on them by the new legislature, credible sources at the Capitol said.

Members of the 52nd Legislature resisted approving the code of conduct bill, which prohibits public officials from engaging in “conflict of interest” amongst other anti-ethical norms.

There is public suspicion that most members of the 52nd Legislature failed to pass the bill fearing that approving it could entrap them since some allegedly engaged in acts judged by public opinion as “conflicts of interest.”

The code of conduct bill is among some 20 bills left as unfinished business by the 52nd legislature.

Senators at plenary Tuesday resolved to send all bills inherited from the 52nd Legislature to the Executive to either return them anew to the 53rd Legislature or trash them.

“...The ones from the Executive should go back. Mr. Secretary of the Senate, you should make the distinction between them and send them back to the Executive for resubmission to the Legislature,” Senate Pro-Tempore Gbehzongar Findley instructed the Secretary to the Senate.

But House Press and Public Affairs Director, Mr. Isaac Redd Wednesday told this paper via telephone that no inherited bills at the House of Representatives have been returned to the Executive.

“Such Bills have been sent to the archives of the House…they are now history. They can only resurface at plenary if the Executive decides to resubmit them to the legislature,” Mr. Redd said,   when contacted Wednesday.

President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf recently signed a renewable Executive Order outlining a code of conduct for cabinet ministers and other officials forming part of her new government.