The police debt accruing from electricity, water, food supply and fuel has been increasing steadily since 2010. In 2013, the debt burden stood at UGX38.4 billion but, as of January 2018, it had increased to UGX125.9 billion.
Uganda Police Force is broke. Very broke. The force might not be able to smoothly run its operations unless oxygen masks are plugged on its nose to keep it alive for another day. Salaries for officers are hard to come-by, a major foods supplier for the force is up in protest and even if Police was to charge at the supplier with teargas and water canons, it might not have enough supplies to bring the supplier on its knees.
What to do? Police have turned to government, crying for help. Yes, turned to the government that is said is trying to borrow billions of shillings to pay salaries for civil servants.
The Police force has asked government, through the Minister for Internal Affairs, Gen Jeje Odongo, to rescue it from a heavy debt of UGX12 billion. The debt is increasing every day.
The Police Undersecretary, Rogers Muhirwe, has since written to the minister seeking his intervention for government to help the force clear the debt.
Gen Odongo confirmed receiving the letter while addressing the media after the opening of the 24th Police Council meeting in Kampala on Monday.
Gen Odongo is scheduled to meet the Minister for Finance Matia Kasaija to discuss how best the force can be helped to keep going.
The Police debt accruing from electricity, water, food supply and fuel has been increasing steadily since 2010. In 2013, the debt burden stood at UGX38.4 billion but, as of January 2018, it had increased to UGX125.9 billion.
And while it is easy for Police to trail Opposition leader Kizza Besigye for hundreds of kilometres around the country or break up any form of protests, it doesn’t look like a possibility for the same force to stop the debt from rising.
Recently, the Ministry of Finance passed guidelines requiring all departments and ministries to use their allocation to clear debts as a first priority.
Every quarter, at least UGX10 billion is allocated to clearing up part of the debt. However, before the end of a quarter, more than the allocated funds would have been accumulated in debts.
It’s a vicious cycle.
For example, this financial quarter, UGX13.4 billion has been allocated to clearing part of the outstanding debt.
Since Police was forced to clear its debt using annual budgetary allocation, there has been a near-financial crisis in police operations.
In the Financial Year 2016/2017 when the regulation was first passed, the Police Planning and Advisory Committee resolved to suspend budgets of some departments.
In a sitting in August 2016, the committee suspended allocations for the press and public relations department, per diem for officers travelling out of the country especially on scholarships and paying scholarships for personnel for further studies.
However, while appearing before Public Accounts Committee on January 17, Gen Kale Kayihura, the Inspector General of Police, decried a budget shortfall of UGX721 billion, saying it is a “threat to the institution’s function.”
Why is Police getting broker and broker?
Police crying out to government for help wouldn’t shock many. For instance, a leaked report from the Parliamentary Committee of National Economy has warned of Uganda’s ever growing public debt that now stands at a staggering UGX34 trillion.
The debt itself is equivalent to 38% of GDP as at June 2017.
READ: Parliament report warns on Uganda’s Shs34 trillion public debt
And for a Police force battling with operations amid shortfall in its budget, things get even worse. According to the 2018/19 Budget Framework Paper, the Force was allocated UGX514.7 billion out of the required UGX1.2 trillion.
This suggests that Police have been operating below budget yet the last seven years have not been the very best for the force in terms of operational costs as it battles to keep the government in power by crushing any opposition, perceived or otherwise.
Among the underfunded activities, this reporter has established that the institution requires UGX71.7 billion for the construction of staff quarters, but only UGX4.6 billion was allocated.
“The UGX4.6 billion [provided] cannot complete a single block estimated at a cost of UGX5 billion,