Director of the National Insurance Board (NIB) Algernon Cargill “abused” his power as head of NIB when he suspended a member of staff and used NIB funds to pay for his legal defense against an allegation by that member of staff who claimed Mr. Cargill was involved in an adulterous relationship with his wife, according to a letter from NIB Board of Directors.

This is added to the litany of charges Mr. Cargill faces as the Board seeks the concurrence of the Cabinet to have him fired.

In a letter exclusively obtained by the Bahama Journal, Mr. Cargill is accused of conflict of interest and misconduct.

The 22-page letter, dated November 8, was prepared by NIB Chairman Gregory Moss, who wrote to Minister responsible for NIB Shane Gibson on behalf of the Board.

Mr. Moss said this particular matter involves the suspension of Sean Moss.

According to Mr. Moss, the said the matter commenced in 2007 when Mr. [Sean] Moss became concerned by the late night calls, which his wife was receiving at home from Mr. Cargill.

However, the chairman wrote that Mr. Moss conceded that his wife and Mr. Cargill knew each other since about 2004 when his daughter became involved in competitive swimming and his wife had numerous occasions to interact with Mr. Cargill.

In June 2012, Mr. [Sean] Moss separated from his wife for what he called “peace of mind” in relation to the matter of Mr. Cargill and other matters.

“In August 2010, Mr. Moss’ wife came to NIB main headquarters and created a scene as a result of which Director Cargill called Mr. Moss into his office, explained that his wife was making a scene and then, inexplicably, instead of asking security to escort his wife off NIB premises instead, along with Mr. Raymond Wells (deputy director/ VP of information technology ) escorted Mr. Moss and his wife to Director Cargill’s office where they were joined by Mrs. Richenda King, vice president of Human Resources, and recommended that Mr. Moss and his wife commence sessions with Dr. Timothy Barrett,” the chairman wrote.

“In December 2010, Mr. Moss filed divorce proceedings against his wife and in those proceedings mentioned his concern as to the relationship between his wife and Director Cargill. Director Cargill was not named as a party to those proceedings.”

Mr. Moss said Mr. [Sean] Moss was contacted by Mr. Wells, who questioned why Director Cargill’s name was mentioned in that divorce proceeding not withstanding that no documents in respect of those proceedings were ever served by Mr. Moss or his attorneys on Director Cargill.

The chairman said in January 2011, Mr. Moss was called into a meeting with Mrs. King and asked to resign, but Mr. Moss refused.

“The next day he was summoned to another meeting with Mrs. King, Director Cargill, Raymond Wells and Darrin Culmer – the internal industrial affairs lawyer for NIB – and was told that he must take leave without pay, ‘pressured’ to write a letter of apology to Director Cargill and told to amend his petition to exclude the references to Director Cargill before he would be allowed to return to employment at NIB,” Mr. Moss stated.

The chairman said Mr. Moss was forced to sign two letters of apology – dated February 1, 2012 in which he apologised for mentioning Mr. Cargill’s name in his divorce petition and by which he apologised for alleging Mr. Cargill victimised him as a result of his objection to Mr. Cargill’s relationship with his wife.

Mr. [Sean] Moss also reportedly caved into pressure further by amending the petition in the Supreme Court and removed Mr. Cargill’s name from the divorce proceedings.

He delivered the receipt for the amendment to Mr. Wells, the chairman’s letter said.

“Mr. Moss was required to pay his attorney’s the sum of $2,000 for their professional charges in amending the petition. By that date, Mr. Moss had already been transferred from his location at the NIB headquarters to another location and states that he had agreed to the retractions because of the pressure, which had been placed upon him by Director Cargill, Mrs. King and Mr. Wells and also as a result of their promise to reinstate him to his former location once he had made the retraction,” Chairman Moss wrote.

In an e-mail dated April 20,2012, Mr. [Sean] Moss wrote an email to Mrs. King complaining that NIB had not kept its part of the bargain in that it had not restored him to his former position in NIB.

On April 30, in an email to Mr. Moss, Mrs. King advised Mr. Moss that his services at NIB had been suspended with half pay for 10 days as a result of that allegation and that he was required to report to her office on May 14, 2012. The letter was copied to various people including Mr. Cargill and Mr. Wells, the letter stated.

After the May 7 general election, Acting President of the Public Managers Union Winston Moss wrote to Mrs. King complaining about Mr. [Sean] Moss’ suspension and that NIB was in violation of the Industrial Agreement between NIB and his union.

As a result, Mr.[ Sean] Moss wrote two letters to Director Cargill to retract his apologies.

“I do hereby absolutely and unconditionally retract my apology as aforesaid as it was not freely given. My free will was usurped and I gave the apology because I was ordered and forced do to do, by you,” the letter said.

On that same day, Mr. [Sean] Moss received a letter saying that he would receive his full salary from the period April 30 to May 11.

The NIB chairman said when the Board questioned Mrs. King as to why she would have suspended an employee who came to her to complain of victimisation, she said that she her response as appropriate.

“Added to everything else, NIB engaged the services of the law firm of Bostwick & Bostwick to represent Mr. Cargill at the cost of $7,500 in NIB funds. When questioned about this, both Director Cargill and Mrs. King responded that that engagement was not in respect of the divorce proceedings but in respect of Mr. Moss’ allegation of victimisation. The view of the Board that the divorce proceeding and the charge of victimisation were one and the same thing were not shared by Mr. Cargill or Mrs. King,” Mr. Moss wrote.

“In my opinion, although no conclusion has yet been reached by the Board on this specific matter, this matter represents a rancid abuse of power by various executives of NIB including Director Cargill and amounts to gross misconduct on their parts.”

The Journal has tried repeatedly to reach Mr. Cargill for a comment but those calls were not returned up to press time.