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| Parry Osayande presenting the report to the President |
Says Ministry of Police Affairs unnecessary
· Wants merger of ICPC, FRSC, NSCDC with Police
President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday at the State House received the report of the Parry Osayande-led Presidential Committee on the Re-organization of the Nigeria Police.
The Committee recommended among others things, a mass purge in the Police to rid it of incompetent people and fraudulent individuals giving it a bad name.
Parry Osayande, who is also the chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), noted that the Police now harbour officers with corrupt tendencies and bad disciplinary records which he said is due to neglect on the part of government.
He said: “These undesirable elements should not be allowed to remain in the Force. In addition, officers with physical and mental disabilities as well as those with fraudulent educational qualifications should be fished out.
“The purge should be on a continuous basis to ensure the sustenance of the vision of the new Nigeria Police Force.”
The committee noted that the Ministry of
Police Affairs has no particular assigned role in the 1999 Constitution as it
is neither in charge of Police administration which is assigned to the Police
Council, nor in charge of operations which is assigned to the Inspector-General
of Police or in charge of appointment, discipline and promotion which is
assigned to the Police Service Commission. It observed also that the budgeted
fund of the Police “is unjustifiably domiciled with the Ministry of Police
Affairs.”
The ministry, the committee said, determines
police projects and awards its contracts, including organizing and running
training programmes involving billions of naira with no input from the Police
people who are the end users. According to the committee, “the result is that
some of the projects being executed are not priorities to the Police. This is
an aberration which has led to abuse, misapplication and hemorrhage of the
limited resources made available to the Police.”
The committee recommended that the Police
should be empowered to determine its priorities, draw its budget based on its
needs and should be held accountable for the use of the funds, adding, “the
"envelop system" of budgeting for the Police whereby the Ministry of
Finance provides a budget template encourages corruption. “This is because rather
than allow the policing plan to influence the budget, the budget influences the
policing plan,” it stated.
It therefore recommended that the fiscal and
financial responsibility and accountability of the resources of the Nigeria
Police be vested in the Inspector General of Police who is the operational head
of the force.
“The Inspector General of Police should
exercise the authority through prudent budgeting and input from all the
different Police Commands and formations with the aim of achieving a decentralization
of Police resources,” it stated.
On the revision of the salaries and overall
welfare of the policemen, the committee observed that previous reform
panels/committees had identified poor remuneration and conditions of service as
factors that have adversely affected police performance.
It said the poverty of the ordinary policeman
coupled with weak institutional governance predisposes him to engaging in all
sorts of schemes for self-help and survival.
The committee noted that despite the fact that
the parallel organizations that were carved out of the Nigeria Police only
perform part of the functions of the Police, their staff members are far better
renumerated and motivated than personnel of the Nigeria Police.
It said: “For instance, the salary of the
Inspector-General of Police is very meagre when compared with those of the
Heads of the State Security Services; National Intelligence Agency and Economic
and Financial Crimes Commission.
“While the Inspector General of Police earns
N711,498 per month, the Director-General, State Security Service earns N 1.336
million per month and the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial
Crimes Commission earns N1.5 million per month. This disparity in salary does
not reflect the higher responsibility attached to the Office of the
Inspector-General of Police.
“It is the recommendation of the committee
that the remuneration and general conditions of service of Police personnel
should be reviewed upward to boost morale, instill discipline in the police and
restore the dignity of the Nigerian policeman,” it said.
The committee insisted that some of the duties
taken away from the police should be returned to it.
“Consequently, the Independent Corrupt
Practices Commission (ICPC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the
Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) should immediately merge with
the Nigeria Police Force,” the committee declared.
Source: Peoples Daily
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