By Earl Moxam, Senior Gleaner WriterAN ALLOCATION of $16 million in the 2004/2005 budget for the construction and repair of police stations and other buildings has left the Jamaica Police Federation frustrated.
"It is going to cost a whole lot more to deal with the situation," said Sergeant David White, chairman of the federation.
He was speaking against the background of recent calls for urgent action to improve the state of police stations islandwide. While acknowledging that there had been efforts to address the problem in recent years, Sergeant White argued that the current sporadic approach was not sufficient.
Instead, he said, there needed to be a comprehensive programme, "possibly externally funded... so that we could repair all of them at once, in which case the impact would be greater."
Derrick Smith, opposition spokesman on national security, entered the fray earlier this week, when he claimed that 50 per cent of the over 200 stations were in need of repair.
This year's budgetary provision of $16 million to repair police stations is substantially below the $81 million presented in the Estimates of Expenditure last year.
When asked about the sharp reduction, a spokesperson for the Ministry of National Security hinted at a plan to address the situation in a comprehensive manner, outside of the figures in the Estimates, not unlike what was recommended by Sergeant White. He declined, however, to provide details.
Overall, the Ministry of National Security has been allocated $14.98 billion in recurrent expenditure and $210 million in capital expenditure for the 2004/2005 fiscal year.
Among the more significant provisions in the capital budget is an allocation of $40 million for the acquisition of motor vehicles for the police.
This is a substantial jump from the $8 million in last year's estimates for motor vehicle purchase. Dr. Peter Phillips, Minister of National Security, announced plans to purchase the vehicles last week.
This, according to Sergeant White, is another area in which police personnel have been calling for urgent action.
An allocation of $39 million is also in the Estimates of Expenditure for the purchase of equipment for a revamped traffic ticketing system being implemented by the Jamaica Constabulary Force.
