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ABUJA – INSPECTOR-General of Police, IGP, Suleiman Abba yesterday lamented that the N5,895,797,734 budgeted for all subheads in the Overhead Cost for Police Formations and Commands in the 2015 budget was not enough to provide minimal fueling and maintenance cost for police operational vehicles for three months.
IGP Abba who stated during his 2015 budget defence with
the Senate Committee on Police Affairs in Abuja said that .paucity of fund occasioned by the envelop concept of budgeting have become an impediment towards police meeting up with its constitutional requirements.
He said that every year the Police were given specific amounts for its Capital and Recurrent budgets tagged ceiling or envelope that never reflected the enormous size, scope and responsibility and actual needs of the force.
He even noted that in 2014 budget, a capital vote of N218 billion was proposed but it was later replaced with an envelope of N7.34 billion, adding that even out of that, only N3,453,492,502 representing 47 per cent was released as at December 31 of the year.
He also said that out of N8,499,861,314 that was appropriated for Overhead cost expenditure for 2014, only N5,708,229,318 was released and out of that, N5,000,000 was deducted at source for electricity bills, while the sum of N2,791,631,996 representing 32 percent was not released.
He even lamented that N287,061,950,723 was appropriated for personnel cost as against the computed sum of N293,526,624,260 required to pay personnel salaries and allowances using the template issued by the Budget Office of the Federation and that the reduction of the personnel cost by N6,464,673,537 were unable to conclude payment of salaries.
The IGP who was represented by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG Ibrahim Tsafe, also said that the N329,669,237,019 being the budget estimate of the force in 2015 also through the ‘envelopes’ or ceillings’ for the police did not reflect the actual needs of the force.
He noted that the N5,895,797,734 projected for all subheads in the Overhead cost for police was grossly inadequate and cannot take care of the minimal fueling and maintaining of 13,083 vehicles including 2,937 motorcycles nationwide.
“This is not to mention other critical subheads such as local travels and transport allowance, aircrafts, marine boats, local and international training costs, maintenance of buildings which include offices and barracks, feeding of detainees nationwide, provision of uniforms and accommodation among others.,” he stated.
On the Capital Projects, he said that “The Capital budget is a far cry from the minimal requirement of N218 billion contained in the outcome of the Medium Term Sector Strategy, MTSS. However, the proposed capital proposal based on the envelope will be utilized to address security challenges especially, violent crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery and to ensure the maintenance of law and order.”
The IGP also disclosed that about N252 million will be required for the procurement of Dogs and Houses Equipment and Establishment of Veterinary Centres and that the animals were essential in police operations especially in the detection and prevention of crimes and in the maintenance of law and order..
He explained that, “The sum of N80,000,00 each is proposed for these purposes, while a total of N252 million has been projected for the establishment of veterinary clinics, diagnostic and breeding centres to carter for the needs of these animals.”
Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Paulinus Igwe advised the police to find a way of generating its revenue going by the fact that the oil which had been the nation’s source of income was dwindling.
DIG Tsafer in an interview said that Police force was not a revenue generating organization but promised that since the senate has directed that it should generate its own revenue, , that the force would look inwards.
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