Dear Editor,
During the FNM’s tenure, PLP operatives complained constantly about damages paid to abuse victims by the courts. It is therefore quite incredible that so soon after coming to office, the PLP government would come to a secret settlement with senior police officers, pay them with our money, and decline to say how much they got.
The cry used to be, “Look how our money is disappearing through the courts under the FNM!” Now, the PLP is actually settling live court cases before a ruling can be made, deciding how much of our money they want to give away, and refusing to disclose the details.
Their explanation for keeping the police settlements secret, that it might cause the officers to suffer security issues, is either nothing more than a sad excuse, or the payments to these officers were truly enormous. We have many obviously rich people in this country who don’t get that kind of consideration from the government. It is much more likely that the government is trying to duck any outrage that may follow if we found out what kind of payday they agreed to.
So, exactly how rich are these police officers now? The government can’t seriously be saying that members of the public don’t have a right to know what they did with our money.
And then there are other questions. for example do these senior officers happen to have any particular political affiliations? I am not accusing them of anything, but I hear politicians say all the time that justice must not only be done but also “seen to be done”.
Editor, this is exactly why we need a Freedom of Information Act. If I remember correctly, the last PLP government promised to make this a reality. Minnis and the FNM made similar promises.
So, where do I sign up? How can I put in a request for freedom of information with regard to these police settlements? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
Sincerely,
Ricky Johnson
This is the dumbest thing I have ever read.. what are they supposed to do defend it and incur hundreds of thousands in legal costs?
@Thomas you do realize the law suits were nothing to do with the officers performance only to right size the force of having 10 assistant commissioners of police. Last we checked our labour laws have employment at will status meaning that anytime an employer can let you go and pay you what you are owed under law. Even if they sued under the wrongful dismissal clause in law it only affords them basic compensation if the case has merit of political or unfair bias. Would you not want to know if they received $500k or $1 million vs the standard year salary of $65k plus legal cost if they won their cases? By the way they all were still paid in full as they were redeployed from the force. So while you say it’s dumb clearly settling all cases without merit or justification is derelict especially when we the tax payers paid them while on reassignment. Imagine you on you job and your employer allows you to accumulate 60 weeks of paid vacation.
@Author Rickey Johnson
I would not get to excited about Freedom Of Information as the release of information in the current act as written has special exclusion that the cabinet or minister can say does not meet the standard and for national security or some privacy issue under the data protection act deny the FOI request. While the requestor can appeal to the commissioner of FOI and to the high courts there are in law automatic exclusions like anything that goes before cabinet for a decision. Even if you request via the treasury department the expenditure payouts you may get dollar amounts but won’t know who got what. Welcome to a fair and transparent bahamas where governments simply talk transparency and anti corruption but truly don’t wish to make the bahamas a real place….