NASSAU, BAHAMAS — National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said yesterday that the government will move ahead with an inquiry into several matters at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services (BDOCS).
The matters in question are what led to Correctional Services Commissioner Charles Murphy being sent on administrative leave late last year.
When asked about the issue yesterday, Munroe said: “The matter keeps developing. I have directed the correctional officers to draw a line under it and we’re going to just have to move ahead with the inquiry and get on with it and as other people come, they will just have to be dealt with as they come.”
Munroe recently stated that the government owes nearly $1 million to several correctional officers who were sent home by Murphy.
In October, Murphy’s attorney, Romona Farquharson-Seymour, said that two weeks before the general election on September 16, Munroe’s law firm, which is now inactive, sought an adjournment in a case involving two deputy commissioners of correctional services, both of whom have since been reinstated at the prison.
Prior to assuming office, Munroe’s firm represented Bernadette Thompson-Murray and Doan Cleare, who filed lawsuits in 2019 at the government, claiming they were made to take vacation in order for Murphy to be appointed commissioner, a position the pair alleged he was unqualified for.
Murphy was directed to go on administrative leave less than two weeks after the general election, and Cleare and Thompson-Murray were returned to the prison, with Cleare appointed as acting commissioner of correctional services.
Farquharson-Seymour has suggested that the minister has a conflict of interest in the matter.
Murphy has maintained that there was no wrongdoing during his tenure.
Munroe has said it came to his attention that prison management might have breached a Supreme Court order, directing the release of an inmate who was committed to prison for failing to obey an order of a Supreme Court judge.
The minister also said the briefing he received disclosed, on the face of it, that the correctional services department was not being “operated in accordance with the Correctional Services Act”.
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