Double trouble
Ombudsman cracks whip on public servants campaigning for election
POLITICAL OMBUDSMAN Donna Parchment Brown has written to the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) regarding allegations that public officials aligned to the party are actively involved in representational politics in breach of the Code of Conduct and the legislation giving her office jurisdiction to police misconduct.
President of the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA), O’Neil Grant, has also made it clear that the public-service Staff Orders prohibit public officers from campaigning and appearing on political platforms.
“We are explicitly prohibited from taking part in partisan political activities,” Grant told The Gleaner.
Parchment Brown, who penned a letter on June 24 to the hierarchy of the JLP following complaints by the People’s National Party, indicated that persons holding positions in the public sector were doubling up as caretakers.
Failure by the JLP to respond to the claim by next week could cause her office to summon purported offenders.
In March, the PNP wrote to the political ombudsman complaining about Tova Hamilton, who then served as deputy executive director of the Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) and Jamaica Labour Party caretaker for Trelawny North. She was appointed a senator by Prime Minister Andrew Holness last week.
The Gleaner understands that Hamilton quit the agency on June 22.