The decision by the ruling People's National Party (PNP) to give back the $31 million 'gift' from Dutch commodity traders Trafigura Beheer and the resignation/firing of the party's general secretary and Information Minister, Colin Campbell, are clearly aimed at limiting the political fallout from the scandal.

Mr. Campbell, obviously, is paying the price for what is deemed ineptitude in his structuring of the deal, leaving the Government open to credible claims of corruption and kickbacks. For, while we suspect that Trafigura's statement that the cash was in furtherance of a commercial transaction was partly to appease European regulators, its effect is to imply shady dealings on the part of Jamaican government ministers and others close to Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

Internally, the Trafigura scandal immediately does two things: It weakens the popular and populist Mrs. Simpson Miller and strengthens the position of the Peter Phillips wing of the party. Dr. Phillips was Mrs. Simpson Miller's closet rival for the job of party leader and prime minister during the PNP's leadership contest in February. After Mrs. Simpson Miller's victory, Dr. Phillips' supporters felt that they were being sidelined while the Portia yellow brigade made an arrogant march to ascendancy. Mr. Campbell and the Energy and Commerce Minister, Phillip Paulwell, were seen to be among the ascendant group.

Now Mrs. Simpson Miller is willing to sacrifice Mr. Campbell and, according to PNP insiders, Mr. Paulwell, too, came close to feeling the axe, the duo having been deemed to have made a hash of this party financing issue, which was handled with the counsel of senior PNP vanguard.

Mrs. Simpson Miller and party elders, including former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, will hope that the Trafigura issue will, rather than reopen the wounds caused by the leadership race, pull the PNP closer together, causing it to hunker down and famously win a fifth consecutive term in office. An electoral victory had seemed more than a possibility after the PNP's recent big annual conference, at which Mrs. Simpson Miller's great charisma and popularity were highlighted.

Whatever the internal impact, the PNP leader should not assume that the fall of Mr. Campbell and the maintenance of the sword of Damocles over the head of Mr. Paulwell will be sufficient to satisfy the electorate. Nor does giving back the cash to Trafigura.

She needs to do more.

First, she must order that the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ) cancel its agreement to trade the oil received by Jamaica on concessionary terms, no matter how above board and rewarding PCJ says the agreement has been. People must be assured that Trafigura did not bribe its way to that agreement. Second, she must turn the issue of the payment and the controversial bank account over to the police Fraud Squad for investigation.

If Mrs. Simpson Miller was serious in her declarations that she depends on small donors for her election campaign, which would make the Trafigura issue an aberration, she should, ahead of any law regulating party financing, open a register of PNP contributors and lay it bare to public scrutiny. If, indeed, there is nothing more to hide.

The Prime Minister must also fast-track discussion and legislation on the issue, bearing in mind that is not only foreign companies that seek to pay for influence.