CHARLES MURPHY, Commissioner of the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services. The government has decided not to fund an independent inquiry into Mr Murphy’s actions while in charge at the prison.
By EARYEL BOWLEG
Tribune Staff Reporter
ebowleg@tribunemedia.net
THE attorney representing Corrections Commissioner Charles Murphy accused the government of defaming his reputation while having no intention of investigating allegations about his tenure.
She was contacted to respond to reports from a local daily about the Ministry of Finance’s decision not to fund an independent inquiry into Mr Murphy’s actions while heading the correctional facility.
“As we said before, they said it and Mr Murphy has been waiting for them to contact him to answer these allegations and nothing. And though it just speaks to solidify what our position was in the very beginning, that this was pure spite and victimisation. There was never any intention to have any investigation because it was well known that there was no wrongdoing on the part of Mr Murphy,” Romona Farquharson said.
“So they basically defamed a senior public servant. Sought to blemish his career, put him out to pasture, and now once he has reached the time for his retirement, now you’re going to announce that you’re not going to have the investigation.
“All it does is strengthen our position before the courts. But it’s absolutely disgraceful. And even in light of that, they promised us in writing that they would get back to us and they would seek to deal with this matter. We’ve heard nothing.”
Commissioner Murphy was sent on leave in September 2021 so officials could investigate the case of Prescott Smith, a man who was being kept at the prison in a possible breach of a Supreme Court order.
It was announced he would be placed on leave and replaced by Acting Commissioner Doan Cleare. Mr Cleare had been ordered to return to the prison along with Bernadette Murray, another deputy commissioner who had been sidelined by the previous administration.
National Security Minister Wayne Munroe’s firm, Munroe & Associates, filed a lawsuit in 2019 on behalf of the Deputy Commissioners Cleare and Murray. The pair alleged that former National Security Minister Marvin Dames forced them to take vacation leave to facilitate the promotion of Mr Murphy, their deputy.
According to The Nassau Guardian, the Ministry of Finance has decided not to fund an independent inquiry into Mr Murphy’s actions.
“To engage the independent inquiry would have required us paying to bring in the chap from Canada, paying his per diem, all of that, and then paying like two or three other people. It was decided that that would be an expense that wouldn’t be undertaken,” Mr Munroe told The Nassau Guardian.
He also said: “The Ministry of Finance has decided that they’re not going to fund it. That’s the blunt version of it. So, we’ve been asked simply to collate the information and to act on it in terms of correcting things that we’ve found.”
Yesterday, Ms Farquharson said the actions taken against her client was an “abuse of power”.
She said her client has been distressed and described how it has affected people around him.
“He’s been trying to make the best of it, obviously, but it’s been distressing things because again, it not only affects Mr Murphy, but his family as well. His wife, a senior civil servant, a principal of a school, a senior person in the educational system, children, everyone is affected by it,” she said.
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