NEWLY appointed Political Ombudsman Donna Parchment Brown has appealed to the country’s two main political parties to properly vet members before putting them up to run for public office.

Parchment Brown’s appeal comes a day after the country’s two daily newspapers reported that Equilibro Solutions Jamaica Limited, a company owned by former People’s National Party candidate for Trelawny North John-Paul White, owed the government $14 million in tax arrears.

“I am urging parties to make sure that the candidates that they are putting up, who at the end of the day could become prime minister or leader of the opposition, are properly vetted,” she told the Jamaica Observer during a telephone interview yesterday.

“Even if you have them now, if something comes up that shows that they are not eligible that they are legally or ethically inappropriate there’s still time to withdraw those candidates,” Parchment Brown urged.

The political ombudsman also appealed to the media to publicise what is required of those seeking political office.

“I would be very happy if the Observer and other media [houses] publicised the requirements for nominations, as well as the disabilities. So people who have any convictions, and people who are bankrupt are not eligible even if they are otherwise eligible,” she said, adding that it was necessary to eliminate sources of conflict and confrontation.

At the same time, Parchment Brown said she was also concerned with public utterances from candidates leading up to election day on February 25.

“It is important that we look at the campaigning that is going on, that the public utterances whether they are written or spoken or they are on social media that we ensure that they are not malicious to destroy people.

“…That they are not slanderous or libellous and that they do not incite any action. One of the reasons for this is if you make a really disrespectful and untruthful statement about a member of ‘my party, my candidate, my party leader, their family members’ then it will create an opportunity for confrontation,” she insisted.

“And so we want to encourage people to be very conscious of the difference between a robust campaign and an unfair and dishonest campaign,” said Parchment Brown.