ISLAMABAD, June 1: A big chunk of the additional Rs290 million given to the capital police in its current year’s budget went into providing security to VVIPs and not to the citizens for whom the extra money was sought.
An end-of-the-year review of police’s performance done by the Centre for Peace and Development Initiatives (CPDI), says that except the Islamabad Traffic Police (ITP), policing services in the capital have no improvement to show for the additional money.
Last year’s budget of Rs887 million of the Islamabad Police was increased this year to Rs1.177 billion with the aim of improving the facilities and infrastructure at the city police stations to enable them to provide better security to citizens.
Most of these increased allocations were spent, however, on protecting the VVIP movements — that too in a manner which made no difference in the lot of the poor low-grade police officers who provided the VVIPs protection, according to the Islamabad- based civil society organization CPDI.
Neither did it enhance the security of the common man which the extra money was intended to provide.
“The National Assembly, while approving the new budget (for 2007-08), must make it conditional that any additional allocation must result in tangible improvements in the working environment at police stations, especially for junior staff such as constables,” the centre has proposed.
The CPDI is of the view that the existing practices and attitudes of the police hierarchy do not allow adequate resources to reach the points where the service is actually delivered and where people get in contact with the police.
It is evident from the fact that most police stations and police posts remain under-resources and inadequately equipped to deal with the challenges despite higher budgetary allocations.
At present, the CPDI says the Islamabad police drastically lack appropriate facilities for its junior staff. Police employees are provided no transport and have to travel long distances to reach the place of duty on their own.
They are also not provided appropriate accommodation or any meals during the duty hours, even when they are made to serve away from homes and for long and odd hours.
Out of the total allocation of Rs1.177 billion for 2006-07, Rs999.5 millions were meant for employees related expenses, while Rs125 millions were to be used for operating expenses such as communications, utilities, travel and transport.
Considering that the employees related expenses are fixed, while bulk of operating expenses are eaten up by VVIP duties, little resources are left to meet the legitimate needs of police stations and posts in Islamabad.
“When such legitimate needs are not met by the government, the police employees are effectively encouraged or pushed to indulge in corrupt practices,” the centre observed.
The CPDI has expressed its concerns over reports that, at present, most police employees cannot access their entitlements such as TA or DA.
Similarly, each police station in Islamabad has only one vehicle for use, and the daily entitlement for petrol use is only 15 litres, while no funds are made available for the repair and maintenance of vehicles. It is despite the fact that the total allocation for travel and transportation had increased from Rs39 million in 2005-06 to Rs55 million in 2006-07.
Similarly, police stations generally lack funds for the repair and maintenance of buildings. Total allocation for repair and maintenance in the 2006-07 was only Rs20 million, which were supposed to cover the costs related to transport, machinery and equipment, furniture and fixture, buildings and structures and computer equipment.
“One fails to understand how the government had arrived at such a small figure, which was not adequate at all to meet the needs,” it stated.
A number of problems at the service delivery points are either because the required funds are not made available, or their utilisation is not transparent. Any improvement in terms of transparent utilisation of funds would earn the Islamabad police credibility, in addition to addressing grievances of junior staff, the centre has observed.
The CPDI has urged the relevant authorities to rationalise the budget allocations and ensure maximum transparency in the utilisation of allocated funds.