January 27, 2013 by ALLWELL OKPI
Almost half a billion naira was budgeted for the upgrade and rehabilitation of facilities at police colleges across the country in 2012, investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH have shown.
A breakdown of the N307bn budget of police formations and commands, obtained from the Budget Office of the Federation, Ministry of Finance, showed that N296.75m was budgeted for the upgrade of facilities in the following police training institutions – Detective College, Enugu State, PMF training schools, Gwoza (Borno State) and Ila-Orangun (Osun), ATS Training School Nonwa-Tai, (Rivers) Police colleges, Ikeja (Lagos), Kaduna, Maiduguri (Borno), Oji-River (Enugu), PTS Iperu (Ogun), Ibadan (Oyo), Oyin-Akoko (Ondo), mounted and dog training schools, communication training schools, Ikeja and Kaduna.
Another N200m was budgeted for the rehabilitation of Police Intelligence College, Challawa, Kano State.
Besides the training institutions, N462.3m was budgeted for the rehabilitation and repairs of police stations and barracks across the country, while N142.1m was budgeted for the establishment and deployment of integrated police management information technology systems in police formations, commands and training institutions.
Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan had visited the Police College, Ikeja, after Channels Television exposed the rot in the school.
As a result, the Federal Government last week set up an 11-man committee to probe the rot in police colleges.
Part of the committee’s work will be to ascertain the amount of money appropriated for the police to renovate and upgrade the police institutions between 2009 and 2012.
Director, special duties in the police affairs ministry is the head of the probe team raised by Police Affairs Minister, Caleb Olubolade.
The committee is expected to examine the budget proposed and appropriated by NPF for training institutions between 2009 and 2012 and to verify the utilisation of the appropriation to the NPF for the upgrade of facilities in the following police training institutions: Detective College, Enugu; PMF training schools Gwoza and Illa Orangun; ATS Training School, Nonwa Tai; Police Colleges, Ikeja, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Oji-River; and PTS Iperu.
The committee is also to ascertain if the heads of the NPF formations were regularly updating the NPF management on the conditions of the institutions between 2009 and 2012 and what actions were taken by the management of NPF; examine the design and capacity of the institutions vis-à-vis the current number of intakes and to also examine the current condition of infrastructure in all the NPF training institutions and make appropriate recommendations to the government.
The Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Debo Adeniran, told SUNDAY PUNCH that the Police College, Ikeja and other colleges had remained in their poor state because budgetary allocations over the years ended in the pockets of individuals.
He said, “Even if they had budgeted N1bn for the upgrade of facilities at the police colleges, it will still not amount to anything because those in charge will divert the money into their pockets. There is simply no accountability in the system.
“For several years, different amounts of money have been budgeted for projects at those colleges but nobody has monitored implementation. The National Assembly and the minister of police affairs have not performed their oversight functions.”
When contacted the Deputy Force Public Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said it was not in his capacity to comment on such a matter.
“I comment only on routine operational and administrative matters,” he said.
However, a police source said not all the N496m budgeted for the police training schools was released to the institutions.
He said, “At the end of the day, each of the colleges might not get more than N5m out of the money. The general performance of the 2012 budget was around 40 per cent, and for the police, which the government does not care for, one can be sure that not up to 60 per cent of the N496m got to the institutions. That is the problem.
“And to be realistic, even if all the money was released, it would still not be enough to effectively run the institutions.”