UNBUDGETED AND UNFUNDED: AG says judgments against govt ‘have to be paid’

PM claims former administration failed to account for $1B in liabilities, including court judgments

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Attorney General Ryan Pinder said yesterday that the government is working through a “shocking number” of court judgments against the government that has been unbudgeted for and unfunded.

Pinder’s comments come on the heels of revelations from Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis last week that the former administration failed to account for $1 billion in debt in its pre-election economic and fiscal update report and the government’s actual liabilities.

Davis said the reporting excluded court judgments made against the government and made no mention of potential liabilities emanating from contract breaches committed by the former administration.

As a result, he said millions of dollars in funding have been provided in the government’s supplementary budget to cover the costs of those judgments.

In an interview with Eyewitness News, Pinder said: “It’s just a significant number of judgments against the government that are unbudgeted and unfunded and it’s clearly a material number and a shocking number and we’re working through them.”

The attorney general noted that those judgments are in a number of different areas, including a significant amount of involving brutality cases with the uniformed branches, as well as property and employment/industrial matters.

“These are judgments against the government or settlements that have been entered into by the government,” Pinder said.

“None that I have seen are any indication to appeal… It’s just that we have a situation where litigation against the government is prevalent and we have to find a way to start mitigating that through our action as citizens in the country, both as a government and one as citizens.”

Pinder assured that the government will find a way to account for and pay off those debts.

“These are judgments against the government, so they have to be paid,” he said.

“The problem is there is not an adequate budget allocation format, so we have to go to the Ministry of Finance and discuss it and see the best way forward, but at the end of the day, they are going to have to be paid.”

Pinder confirmed that a Cabinet subcommittee has been formed to review those judgments and identify groupings that can be specifically targeted, such as the uniformed branches, to see if there are ways to curb the number of cases against the government.

“We have to find a way to start mitigating those and it’s unfair to the government, it’s unfair to taxpayers, so we would have to look at ways in which we can mitigate judgments in other areas as well,” he said.

The committee includes Pinder, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe and Immigration Minister Keith Bell.

The initiative comes amidst ongoing incidents of police brutality being caught on video and circulated on social media and even pending cases against the government’s immigration and detention practices.

Earlier this year, the courts handed down two significant rulings against the government — Latario Rolle, who was awarded just over $163,000 for a police brutality matter; and Kenyan national Douglas Ngumi, who was awarded $750,000 for an immigration matter.

Rolle alleged that police officers detained him as he was returning a video game to a relative, and punched out his teeth when he questioned an officer about his arrest.

Ngumi was unlawfully detained at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre for nearly seven years.