NASSAU, BAHAMAS — While the Prerogative Board of Mercy Committee has received just 10 applications to expunge criminal records for breaches of the emergency orders, the government does not yet have the power to do so.
According to Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe, applications have been made to the board and forwarded to the Ministry of National Security for approval, but “as the minister who has to sign them, I know there is no power to do it”.
Munroe said the Office of the Attorney General is drafting legislation that would allow for the automatic expungement of those records.
“The attorney general is supposed to be working on an amendment to the act to permit us to deal with those matters, rather than them having to go to the Prerogative Board of Mercy,” the minister told Eyewitness News.
“It would just be so it’s not one of the offenses listed and it’s not for expedited clearance as it was from your record.
“It would just be a matter of amending the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act to include breach of emergency powers.”
Asked whether the records of individuals will automatically be expunged following the enactment of the legislation, once passed in both houses of Parliament, the minister said he had not seen the legislation, but upon review, it will become evident how the proposed legislation is intended to work and whether it will serve the function of immediate expungements.
“You can draft it to be an automatic expungement without anyone needing to apply or you can just add it to an offense that you can apply for,” Munroe said.
The expungement of records for breaches of the emergency orders was among the Progressive Liberal Party’s (PLP) campaign pledges.
Munroe has said such records would be “swept away”.
In September, Attorney General Ryan Pinder maintained that it was “fundamentally unfair” that Bahamians were given criminal citations for breach of the orders, which has since ended on November 13.
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