INFORMATION GATHERED by the DAILY HERITAGE indicates that the various units, district, divisional and regional commanders of the Ghana Police Service across the country are in tears over having to use part of their meager salaries to fuel operational vehicles due to inadequate fuel allocated to them.
The police administration every month provides its units in the various regions with 13,000 to 14,000 litres of fuel to carry out their operations and administrative work.
Disturbingly, due to the woefully insufficient fuel allocation, some divisional and regional commands have developed the posture of parking their vehicles at their premises after the fuel allotted to them had finished, and only resume visibility activities until they receive their next consignment.
Checks by the paper reveal that commanders and drivers who are often worried over a possible crime escalating in hot spots as a result of the freeze in night patrolling, fall on their salaries, to fuel the operational vehicles but get no refunds from the national headquarters.
A couple of the divisional and regional commanders who spoke to the paper under strict condition of anonymity revealed that, �we are given only 13,500 litres of fuel for the whole month. So, assuming you are patrolling the Northern region with such quantum of fuel would it be able to last for 30 days?�
�The truth is, the fuel that is given to us is unable to take us through the end of the month. In my case, I dip my hands into my pocket to fuel some of the vehicles at the expense of my child�s school fees,� one worried divisional commander told the paper.
They pointed out that, that explains the artificial shortages of fuel at the various police posts and lull in crime fighting activities at certain times of the month.
�Sometimes the officers on patrol call you during operations to complain of their fuel running out in the vehicles, and, when you are broke, you instruct them to use their money to purchase fuel, though it is not fair,� they lamented.
Sharing his plight with the paper, a driver of one of the police vehicles intimated that �I recently experienced fuel shortage while on official assignment and called my commander and he asked me to use my personal money to buy the fuel which I did, but I have not been reimbursed.�
�We are using the V8 and that car consumes a lot of fuel. We are suffering but, our bosses seem to have turned a blind eye.
�We want to appeal to the national headquarters to reconsider shoring up the volume of fuel that is allocated to the various regional police posts.�
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