Improving the PNP's integrity

Recently, the People's National Party (PNP) launched its five-person Integrity Commission with a mandate to play an advisory role in the candidate selection process to ensure that each person is fit and proper.

The five Jamaicans selected to serve on the PNP's Integrity Commission are said to be eminent Jamaicans. The non-party members are Bishop Wellesley Blair of the New Testament Church of God as chairman, Daisy Coke, formerly of the Public Service Commission and actuary, and Cedric McCulloch, retired permanent secretary and educator. Attorney-at-law Fredrick Hamaty and former government minister Burchell Whiteman are the two PNP members of the commission.

Bishop Blair is an outspoken and fearless clergyman. He believes in probity and it will not be easy to pull a fast one on him. I have known Cedric McCulloch through Sonia, his wife, who taught me biology at Calabar and who is also a member of Boulevard Baptist Church. Cedric is a soft-spoken, unassuming person. Daisy Coke is well known to Jamaicans as a outstanding servant of this nation. The independent candidates are outstanding choices.

Ambassador Burchell Whiteman is a man of integrity. When he was minister of education and I was asked to serve as chairman of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust, I can testify that there was no partisan political interference from him. Hamaty is not known to me but reports suggest that he also is a good choice. But having good members of the commission is only one step. There needs to be proper procedures and also having the power to enact the responsibility.

Therefore, the problem with the commission is that its role is advisory. It does not change the status quo. The power remains in the same hands. The constituency makes the recommendation to the selection panel which, in turn, reports to the executive with the party president having veto powers. That will not change, which is regrettable.

Advisory role

It would seem to be better if the PNP's Integrity Commission was modelled more after the Electoral Commission. It is good that the independents outnumber the party members three to two but the rationale for that is defeated if the commission only has an advisory role. It makes eminent sense if the Integrity Commission becomes the first post in the chain and they determine which candidate is fit and proper. In other words, say three candidates may apply for the opportunity to run in a constituency. They would then apply to the PNP's Integrity Commission. The commission decides that one is not fit and proper but two are okay. Then those two will be able to offer themselves for the position as a candidate for that constituency.

Therefore, the three persons appearing before the commission must present full disclosure of, among other things, their financial assets and spouses' assets too. And failure to offer full disclosure of their assets should result in automatic disqualification. In addition, the prospective candidate must provide a police report and recommendations from last employer/boss, justice of the peace and a civic body in which he or she has served.

The commission must also do independent verification and do its own background checks concerning care of children and family. The candidate that has been disqualified could appeal to the party president or some other committee and if it is deemed that there is merit in the case, then he or she would get another chance to appear before the Integrity Commission but the final decision must be the commission's.

Improving the Integrity of the PNP would require that the commission becomes a regulatory body with the power to decide who is fit and proper from the very beginning of the process.

Devon Dick is pastor of the Boulevard Baptist Church and author of 'The Cross and the Machete: Native Baptists of Jamaica - Identity, Ministry and Legacy'. Feedback may be sent to columns@gleanerjm.com.