The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe says his ministry is hoping to engage a retired correctional officer from Canada to lead an independent committee to investigate Charles Murphy’s tenure as corrections commissioner once Cabinet has given approval.

Mr Murphy was controversially sent on leave in October, supposedly out of concern that a Supreme Court order was breached under his watch.

Since then, Mr Munroe has claimed that a litany of issues have been uncovered, including the handling of a prisoner who caught COVID-19 during lock-up.

Earlier this month, Mr Munroe said he was still seeking Cabinet’s permission for an independent review commission to be appointed to look at matters relating to the prison, including Mr Murphy’s tenure there.

When asked for an update yesterday, the minister said he was still waiting for Cabinet to appoint the committee.

“It’s not been appointed because it takes Cabinet to appoint it,” he told reporters before heading to a Cabinet meeting. “We’re working out the details when and how the persons from the Corrections of Canada because we want when we say independent, we want somebody who isn’t connected to The Bahamas who nobody can say has a horse in the race and we recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Corrections Canada and we’re working out the basis upon which a retired correction services officer will head that.”

Asked how soon a committee could be appointed, the minister replied: “Unfortunately, things don’t always happen in TV time. We have come out of COVID lockdown. We have come out of a number of things. We have met the budget that we have met and unfortunately, I can only operate on the budget that I have. I expect that it will be shortly, but again, not everything is in my control.”

Mr Murphy’s lawyer, Romona Farquharson Seymour, told The Tribune this month she has already taken legal action in the courts on her client’s behalf.

In October she accused Mr Munroe of bias in his handling of Commissioner Murphy, noting he represented two deputy prison commissioners who asked the Supreme Court to quash Mr Murphy’s appointment.

“How do we view,” she said, “that the very thing you were petitioning and asking the court for, the removal of Mr Murphy, which you were asking for in your private capacity, now in your public capacity has come to fruition? Is that a coincidence, happenstance, is that what we are supposed to accept?”