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Law Professor, H Kwasi Prempeh says President John Mahama may have walked himself into a conflict of interest situation when he accepted a car gift.

He said putting the vehicle into government’s pool is not enough to absolve the president of a potential conflict of interest.

President John Mahama has been mired in a controversy over a brand new Ford Expedition gift he received from a Burkinabe contractor, Mr. Djibril Kanazoe in 2012.

Joy News’ investigative journalist, Manasseh Azure Awuni found evidence and obtained an interview from the contractor who said the president called to thank him when he received the gift.

Government has explained that the vehicle has been put in a pool at the Presidency.

But speaking on the matter on MultiTV and Joy FM’s news analysis programme, Newsfile, Prof. Kwasi Prempeh, said what the proceeds of a gift are used for has nothing to do with conflict of interest.

“We do not want to countenance a Robin Hood situation where you could say, 'well I took the gift but I gave it to the needy or to the poor or I donated to Korle-Bu [Hospital]; we really don’t want to enter into those kinds of after-the-fact rationalizations or excuses,” he said.

He explained that “conflict of interest rules are really rules of avoidance; you do not get yourself in that situation; the moment you walk yourself into it, it has occurred already.”

Prof. Kwasi Prempeh said, “conflict of interest happens when you place yourself in that position where your duty to your principal is likely to be compromised; so it has already occurred, what happens after the fact – after you have received whether you call it a gift or bribe, what you choose to do with after the fact - is really a secondary matter completely and it does not cleanse the conflict of interest.”