When a Prime Minister makes an undertaking and gives his or her word on fundamental matters of principle it is expected to be taken seriously, for solemn pledges ought to be bankable instruments deposited on behalf of the citizenry.

At least, that is the principle to which 23 years ago, the late Michael Manley insisted the then Jamaican Prime Minister, Edward Seaga, adhere, by honouring his undertaking not to hold general elections on an old voters' register, which Mr. Manley and his People's National Party felt would disfranchise up to 150,000 voters.

When Mr. Seaga preferred to seize on what was politically opportune and went ahead with the election, Mr. Manley led his party into a boycott, a decision that kept the current Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, out of Parliament for eight years.

We recall this issue because we believe in the principle that the people they serve should be able to trust the word of political leaders in general and those of Prime Ministers in particular. Solemn pledges are just that - solemn pledges.

So, when the Prime Minister announced that she had instructed her party to give back money to a foreign donor whose contribution has left a nasty aftertaste in the mouths of the people, we expect it to be done, by all transparent and legal means. And, we expect the Prime Minister, as Prime Minister, as well as the party leader to know about it, insisting that her instructions be executed in a timely manner.

This is not a matter - in this case paying back the $31 million, which the PNP received from the Dutch commodity company, Trafigura Beheer - for which the Prime Minister can be afforded plausible deniability. The principles at stake in this issue were, and are, too important for her not to know and to want to know.

We expect the Prime Minister to ensure that her party get on with carrying out her instructions, which up to last Wednesday had not been fulfilled.

It is more than three months too since a chastened Mrs. Simpson Miller gave us her solemn pledge that the money would be sent back. A week ago, the PNP's general secretary, Donald Buchanan, told this newspaper it had not yet happened, but that the PNP officers responsible (which ones we do not know) had assured that the transaction was "almost complete". We have been there before.

It would be a shame if the PNP, faced with such a fundamental matter of principle, is incapable of cobbling together $31 million to give back to Trafigura. If that is the case, serious questions must be asked about the PNP as an institution, its capacity to manage its affairs and whether this speaks of its ability to deliver the personnel to manage the affairs of state.

Or, is it reasonable to assume that the PNP is finding it difficult to determine to whom or from whom the money should be returned in the face of Trafigura's initial suggestion that the money was for services provided by a Jamaican outfit.

The PNP needs to come clean, for we take the PM's solemn pledge as just that - a solemn pledge.