NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Two officers at the Department of Correctional Services who were reportedly sent home and had their salaries halted under then BDOC Commissioner Charles Murphy are collectively owed around $200,000, according to Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe.
Murphy was placed on immediate leave pending an investigation into several matters at the department.
Munroe was responding to questions from the media on the ongoing investigation.
“We continue to get information back on that,” Munroe said.
“I anticipate that we will shortly appoint the committee.
“So, the most recent development is we’ve been contacted by a number of correctional officers who said they were simply sent home and their pay stopped and we have had to contend with that.
”Thus far — this would have been on Monday or Tuesday or last week — the acting commissioner advised me of two officers who were sent home and or total indebtedness to them is about, something in the order of $200,000 or so.”
In October, Murphy’s attorney 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.
Romona Farquharson-Seymour, who represents Murphy, has suggested that the minister has a conflict of interest in the matter.
Murphy has maintained no wrongdoing is his tenure.
But Munroe has said it came to his attention that the prison management might have been 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”.
