Financial incentive and police reform
Monday, 13 August 2007
Shamsul Huq Zahid
THE government, according to newspaper reports, is considering a special financial incentive for police personnel under a draft police reform programme, possibly, to discourage the latter from indulging in corruption and help them perform better than before.
The police personnel may or may not find the level of incentive inadequate. The people in general may also stick to their old notion that the police would continue to take bribes in spite of the incentives. There could be hundreds of arguments in favour or against the issue. But all those would boil down to two factors-government's ability to pay additional money for police and the moral strength of the police to resist the lure of unearned income.
There is no denying that the people in general have deep distrust of government officials and are highly dissatisfied with the services rendered by the public sector entities. And at the top of the list of institutions they dislike most is police. Studies conducted by local and international organisations have confirmed it. Police as an institution is the most discussed one because of the fact the people have to seek their help very often. The frequent interactions between police and people have exposed the latter to frequent scrutiny. Unfortunately, police as an institution has never scored well so far as public scrutiny is concerned.
None expects the police to be entirely honest, dutiful and sincere in a society where vices of all sorts are rampant and their political masters are eager to use it either to suppress their opponents or help protect their unlawful and irregular activities. There are other built-in deficiencies that are preventing the police from becoming a disciplined and efficient force. The flaws in recruitment, training, low- level of salaries and other facilities, poor maintenance and operation have largely contributed to police being viewed by the people as perpetrators than their friends.
But the fact remains that police as an institution is highly under-staffed. The salaries and allowances of the police officials, particularly at the bottom rung, are highly inadequate compared with the services they are asked to provide while on duty. Most police officials, particularly constables, assistant sub-inspectors, sub-inspectors and inspectors, are dissatisfied with their duty hours and compensation packages.
There are 123,197 policemen in the force and, of them, 121,659 are between the ranks of constable and inspector. The number of constables is about 88,000. A constable, who starts his career in the police force with a monthly salary of Tk. 4,112, has to perform a daily duty of 14 hours. At times, the duty-hour is prolonged to 18 hours without any extra payment. The police officials at the lower rung find the payment against the duty hours inhuman. No sensible person would tend to differ with such observation. The accommodation and other facilities available to the policemen living in barracks are also inadequate and poor in quality.
Besides, the logistics available with police are highly inadequate to help them perform efficiently. The financial allocations made annually to the police stations to conduct their operations are also extremely insufficient. Most police stations and other divisions, including the riot police, do not have the requisite number of vehicles. They are forced to make requisitions of privately owned vehicles, including passenger buses, trucks and microbuses, causing great inconvenience to their owners. The fuel or conveyance allowance granted to investigating officers has been highly insufficient. The money coerced as bribes from the complainants visiting the police stations is partly spent on meeting day-to-day expenses, including the purchase of stationeries.
The nature of service rendered by police demands special consideration, so far as their salaries and other facilities are concerned. But many people tend to believe that the rise in compensation package and other facilities would not help much in improving their performance and reducing propensity to corrupt practices. However, the government cannot but mete out shabby treatment to people serving in an important institution such as police. While giving the policemen their due, the government needs to find out ways to improve the system of police recruitment.
Under the existing system of recruitment, there is ample scope for influencing recruitment of constables, assistant sub-inspectors and sub-inspectors. It has been observed that the home ministry and the police headquarters in many cases try to influence such recruitment either for political reasons or for financial gains. The power of money in the recruitment and transfer of police personnel has been an open secret.
While talking about reforming the police, the government should consider finding out a better alternative to the existing system of recruiting the police officials at the lower rung. The responsibility of recruitment needs to be transferred to some other independent agencies. There is no guarantee that the recruitment by any third organisation would be corruption-free. Yet, it is worth trying.
The reform of an important institution like police cannot be done through piecemeal steps. Appeals to become true friends of the common people by persons in authority at the state level or police hierarchy sounds good and are picked up by the media very often. But it would hardly make any difference in ground realities unless and until reforms are carried out to remove the anomalies contributing to police inefficiencies.
THE government, according to newspaper reports, is considering a special financial incentive for police personnel under a draft police reform programme, possibly, to discourage the latter from indulging in corruption and help them perform better than before.
The police personnel may or may not find the level of incentive inadequate. The people in general may also stick to their old notion that the police would continue to take bribes in spite of the incentives. There could be hundreds of arguments in favour or against the issue. But all those would boil down to two factors-government's ability to pay additional money for police and the moral strength of the police to resist the lure of unearned income.
There is no denying that the people in general have deep distrust of government officials and are highly dissatisfied with the services rendered by the public sector entities. And at the top of the list of institutions they dislike most is police. Studies conducted by local and international organisations have confirmed it. Police as an institution is the most discussed one because of the fact the people have to seek their help very often. The frequent interactions between police and people have exposed the latter to frequent scrutiny. Unfortunately, police as an institution has never scored well so far as public scrutiny is concerned.
None expects the police to be entirely honest, dutiful and sincere in a society where vices of all sorts are rampant and their political masters are eager to use it either to suppress their opponents or help protect their unlawful and irregular activities. There are other built-in deficiencies that are preventing the police from becoming a disciplined and efficient force. The flaws in recruitment, training, low- level of salaries and other facilities, poor maintenance and operation have largely contributed to police being viewed by the people as perpetrators than their friends.
But the fact remains that police as an institution is highly under-staffed. The salaries and allowances of the police officials, particularly at the bottom rung, are highly inadequate compared with the services they are asked to provide while on duty. Most police officials, particularly constables, assistant sub-inspectors, sub-inspectors and inspectors, are dissatisfied with their duty hours and compensation packages.
There are 123,197 policemen in the force and, of them, 121,659 are between the ranks of constable and inspector. The number of constables is about 88,000. A constable, who starts his career in the police force with a monthly salary of Tk. 4,112, has to perform a daily duty of 14 hours. At times, the duty-hour is prolonged to 18 hours without any extra payment. The police officials at the lower rung find the payment against the duty hours inhuman. No sensible person would tend to differ with such observation. The accommodation and other facilities available to the policemen living in barracks are also inadequate and poor in quality.
Besides, the logistics available with police are highly inadequate to help them perform efficiently. The financial allocations made annually to the police stations to conduct their operations are also extremely insufficient. Most police stations and other divisions, including the riot police, do not have the requisite number of vehicles. They are forced to make requisitions of privately owned vehicles, including passenger buses, trucks and microbuses, causing great inconvenience to their owners. The fuel or conveyance allowance granted to investigating officers has been highly insufficient. The money coerced as bribes from the complainants visiting the police stations is partly spent on meeting day-to-day expenses, including the purchase of stationeries.
The nature of service rendered by police demands special consideration, so far as their salaries and other facilities are concerned. But many people tend to believe that the rise in compensation package and other facilities would not help much in improving their performance and reducing propensity to corrupt practices. However, the government cannot but mete out shabby treatment to people serving in an important institution such as police. While giving the policemen their due, the government needs to find out ways to improve the system of police recruitment.
Under the existing system of recruitment, there is ample scope for influencing recruitment of constables, assistant sub-inspectors and sub-inspectors. It has been observed that the home ministry and the police headquarters in many cases try to influence such recruitment either for political reasons or for financial gains. The power of money in the recruitment and transfer of police personnel has been an open secret.
While talking about reforming the police, the government should consider finding out a better alternative to the existing system of recruiting the police officials at the lower rung. The responsibility of recruitment needs to be transferred to some other independent agencies. There is no guarantee that the recruitment by any third organisation would be corruption-free. Yet, it is worth trying.
The reform of an important institution like police cannot be done through piecemeal steps. Appeals to become true friends of the common people by persons in authority at the state level or police hierarchy sounds good and are picked up by the media very often. But it would hardly make any difference in ground realities unless and until reforms are carried out to remove the anomalies contributing to police inefficiencies.