By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

NATIONAL Security Minister Wayne Munroe said he is biased towards the law – not to his former clients or clients of his firm whose grievances with the government may intersect with his new role.

He spoke to reporters in Inagua after announcing on Thursday that Corrections Commissioner Charles Murphy has been placed on administrative leave and will be replaced by Acting Commissioner Doan Cleare. Mr Cleare has been ordered to return to the prison along with Bernadette Murray, another deputy commissioner who had been sidelined by the previous administration.

As clients of Mr Munroe’s firm, Mr Cleare and Mrs Murray sued the Minnis administration in 2019, alleging they were forced to take vacation leave to facilitate the promotion of Mr Murphy, their deputy. They also alleged that Mr Murphy actively campaigned for the FNM during the 2017 general election. Mr Munroe spoke to The Tribune at length about the lawsuit and related matters around the time the suit was filed.

Asked about the possible appearance of bias towards his former clients, Mr Munroe told reporters: “The law is the law. My bias is towards the law. There is nothing I can do in a case that actually affects a case that I had carriage off. For instance, to answer the question frontally, I can’t appoint a new commissioner of corrections because that’s not a power that resides in a minister. I yesterday didn’t appoint any deputy commissioner of corrections. They are substantive office holders.”

In suspending Mr Murphy, Mr Munroe cited the case of Prescott Smith, a prominent Progressive Liberal Party supporter from Andros who was being kept at the prison in a possible breach of a Supreme Court order by Justice Lorein Klein. Mr Smith reportedly tested positive for COVID-19 in prison and was quarantined in a cell with three other people, prompting the decision to send the commissioner on administrative leave.

“The reality is if there is a case where there may be liability on me, up to criminal liability for gross negligence (or) manslaughter because prison officers are wards of the state, if you don’t act in a way that’s responsible and you start your duty and someone dies or is seriously injured you are criminally responsible, the minister, the commissioner," Mr Munroe said. "And so the reality is yesterday nobody lost their jobs, nobody got promoted, no litigation was settled, no litigation was impacted. It is as simple as there is an allegation that I am in contempt of court, that the commissioner of corrections is in contempt of court for not immediately obeying the order of Justice Klein. That is a matter that has to be investigated. That’s the reality of it.

“We know that the gentleman that wasn’t released is infected with SARS COV2. I was told in my briefing that when you go into the prison you are quarantined and isolated. I discovered that that event happens with four people in a cell. When we visited the correctional institute yesterday one of the men who was in the cell with the gentlemen appeared symptomatic and will be checked for SARS COV2 infection. I hope and pray that he is not infected with SARS COV2 because there would have to be further investigations. Fooling around with people’s liberty is serious business. Interfering with the liberty of a subject is serious business. Anything that impacts it being done incorrectly must be investigated. If for instance the matter escalates, you will find there will not be any internal investigation and there likely may have to be an independent investigation for someone who will render a report that will then be acted on.”

Mr Munroe emphasised his personal responsibility as minister when asked how he will handle matters where cases connected to his professional past intersect with his new public role.

“Some authority given to ministers are personal and so to use the example yesterday, by I think Section 3 or 4 of the Correctional Services Act I am responsible for the general running of the correctional institution, not personally, but that fact makes me personally liable if I do not discharge my duty and so that is something that proceeds in a particular fashion,” he said.

“The permanent secretary, the undersecretary, the deputy permanent secretary are all there to give me advice, there is a manual that we conduct ourselves by and I act on that advice generally. You cannot do anything that favours your personal interest because a conflict of interest means you have an interest to the public to discharge your public duty and you have a personal interest and when they may be in opposition then you have a conflict of interest, so there are steps that you take to ascertain that and there are steps that you take to act on that. The example I give is that people believe that if I represent Rashad Rolle in one case I can never sue him. That’s not correct. I can actually be representing you in one case and suing you in a completely different case of a different client. The only difference is I have to disclose to the person who wants me to sue you that you know I represent Rashad in another case and if they are content with that then that’s fine."