Not enough motor vehicles for cops - AG report

Despite the Government's stated commitment to equip the police force to tackle the crime scourge, an Auditor-General's report on the  implementation of Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Motor Vehicle Policy has  highlighted a lack of proper financial support as a major hindrance.

According to the Auditor-General, the Vision 2030 Jamaica National Development Plan acknowledged improvements in police mobility, but stated that despite these improvements, the JCF and the Department of Correctional Services still operate under constraints that include insufficient modern crime-fighting equipment and motor vehicles.

The Auditor-General's Dedpartment found that the JCF was not sufficiently funded to ensure that it was adequately mobile.

It revealed that the JCF was unable to provide the number of vehicles  requested for the financial years 2007 to 2009.

However, the number of requests for 2009 to 2010 was 504; 195 for 2010 and 2011; and 194 for 2011 and 2012.     

The Auditor-General found that although the JCF submitted the number of vehicles it requested as a component of the National Security Ministry's budget, no provision was made in the original budgets for the respective years.    

All provisions were included in supplementary budgets.

In addition, the funds received by the Ministry of National Security represented only 38 percent, 13 per cent and 23 per cent of the funds requested for the respective years. 

Consequently, the vehicles purchased for the related years were zero, 50 and 93, respectively.

The shortfall in funding resulted in the JCF receiving only 710 motor vehicles for 2007 to 2010 and 2011 to 2012.

The shortfall in funding for motor vehicle acquisition resulted in the JCF retaining vehicles that were deemed as uneconomical to maintain.

The Auditor-General's department cautioned that the Government's failure to provide adequate funding to allow JCF to meet its needs, could negatively impact the Force’s ability to effectively implement its crime-fighting plan for the country.            

It noted that JCF appeared not to have analysed the impact the Government’s failure to adequately fund its annual mobility requests is having on its desire to serve, protect and reassure the people in Jamaica.