Mark one in favour of the People's National Party (PNP). For while Colin Campbell claims that it was his decision to end his attempt to be the party's standard-bearer in the North Central Clarendon constituency, the truth is that he had the rug dragged from under him.

Once Contractor General Greg Christie issued his report on the Trafigura scandal, Portia Simpson Miller and her executive recognised that Mr Campbell's toxicity, in remission for a while, was likely to re-emerge. Matters were worsened by Mr Christie's call for criminal prosecution against Mr Campbell for failing to cooperate fully with the Trafigura investigation.

All this, of course, is an unwelcome distraction for the PNP, which wants to maintain focus on the governing Jamaica Labour Party and its discomfiture over the Manatt-Christopher Coke affair.

In other words, political calculus, rather than high-minded conviction, may have been the PNP's main driver in deciding to ditch Colin Campbell. But we give the PNP the benefit of the doubt, and accept that its real concern was the issue of integrity.

Need for clarity

Which, therefore, brings us to the time it took the party to act against Mr Campbell. There is also need for clarity from the PNP on how its integrity commission proposes to operate, if it is not yet functional.

Recall that in 2006, Mr Campbell was the party's general secretary, as well as the minister of information and development. Trafigura Beheer is a Dutch commodities trader that did business with Jamaica.

At the time, it was revealed by the then Opposition, using leaked bank documents, that Trafigura had deposited the equivalent of J$31 million into an account controlled by Mr Campbell. Trafigura claimed that it was payment for work done, but the PNP said it was a contribution to the party to help finance its annual conference. The Dutch authorities are investigating the possibility of illegal payments to influence the award of contracts.

Make criteria public

Despite the PNP's insistence that there was "no hanky-panky" in Trafigura, Mr Campbell resigned his party and government posts. He remained in the Senate, however. Nothing materially has changed in the matter over the past four years.

Yet, for several months, Colin Campbell was actively, and openly, seeking to establish himself as a PNP candidate and, more recently, specifically for North Central Clarendon, without, it seemed, restraint from the party. An obvious conclusion is that in the absence of Mr Christie's report, Mr Campbell's selection might have just slid through, at least among the officers.

That raises the matter of when, and the process by which, candidates go before the integrity commission for vetting, and what they are required to prove for endorsement.

In other words, the PNP, as we have suggested before, should make public the fit-and-proper criteria its candidates must meet. How do these apply to persons like Mr Campbell who, in the face of public opprobrium, previously withdrew from public positions?

We do not expect the integrity commission to be merely a shiny, new accessory on tattered apparel or costume jewellery pretending to be diamond.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.