How should ethical issues involving public officials be handled?

First I want to distinguish between legal and ethical. Legal means in compliance with the law. Ethical means conforming to standards of moral conduct for a given profession or group. So an act can be unethical without being illegal. Generally ethical issues involving public officials are about decision making situations in which they have a personal interest or a potential conflict of interest. The obvious and most direct way to handle ethical issues is for the officials to clearly identify their interests and to remove themselves from those decisions making situations where conflicts may exist.