THE Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, has lamented the N5 billion proposed for the police to maintain and fuel their vehicles in the 2015 budget, saying it was grossly inadequate.
Abba told the Senate Committee on Police Affairs in Abuja during a budget defence session that the force required N24 billion for fuelling and maintaining its vehicles instead of N5 billion proposed.
The IGP, who was represented by his deputy in-charge of Logistics and Supplies, Mamman Tsafe, said that the police had been expanding over the years with 332,756 policemen, 6,693 Traffic Wardens and 11,999 civilian workers with 3,756 police stations.
He stated that even though the police had expected an increase in funding with the growth in its workforce, the reverse was now the case as overhead and capital budget proposed did not reflect the actual need of the police.
He added that of the N56 billion overhead proposed by the police in 2014, only N8 billion was approved out of which N5 billion was released.
For capital budget, he said that of a proposed N218 billion, N7 billion was approved and only N3 billion was released, adding that N302 billion was appropriated in 2014 for the police.
He said: “The 2015 budget estimates of the Force summed up to N329 billion; capital expenditure N17 billion, overhead cost N5 billion and personnel cost N306 billion.
‘“The capital and overhead budget estimates for the 2015 as presented above are the ‘envelopes’ or ‘ceilings’ given to the police and do not reflect the actual needs of the force.”
The IGP, therefore, appealed to the Senator Paulinus Nwagu-led Senate Committee on Police Affair to assist in repositioning the force to carry out its responsibilities.
In an interview with reporters, DIG Tsafe said although the police was not a revenue generating institution, it must tighten up.
He said that just as so many institutions of government were now looking inward to generate more revenue, the police would do as directed by the Senate.
He said: “We have so many services we render to the members of the public. Very recently the minister organised seminars for internally generated revenue and definitely we will come out when it is finalised.
“We have already explained that the budget implementation was at 40 per cent,” he said.
He however did not disclose the proposed figures for the 2015 budget.
He assured that the police was adequately prepared to provide security for the 2015 general elections, adding that there would be effective and adequate deployment of members of the force.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Nwagu, in his remarks, directed the police to seek ways of generating internal revenue to augment what has been budgeted for its operations.
He said that going by falling oil prices and attendant cut in the budget of all government organisations, there was need to tighten up and also close all areas of revenue leakages.
Source: The Nation
