Commanders toughen up on punctuality

 PROVINCIAL commanders in the New Guinea Islands have been reminded to take tough action against police officers who arrive late or finish work early without a valid reason.

Acting Assistant Commissioner for New Guinea Islands Anthony Billie told police commanders during a conference, in Kokopo, last week that time management was a problem in the force.

“Officers are not reporting in on time or knocking off early,” Billie said. “This is a challenge for police commanders and station commanders. 

“We need to rectify that because according to the circular issued from headquarters, we are supposed to start work at 7.45am and knock off at 5pm,” he said.

He said provincial police commanders needed to look at time management. 

Being absent without leave (AWOL) was a problem.

ACP human resources Francis Tokura said police officers were now being paid high salaries based on performance.

“Our working time slots are 7.45am to 4.06pm and 7.45am to 5pm and the new structure we have been negotiating is based on performance,” he said.

“If we are serious about performance appraisals, many of us will not be getting pay rise at the rate we are going. 

“We are supposed to be questioning officers why they are late.”

Tokura said at workshops they kept on reminding officers that the time slot was 7.45am to 5pm

He said in the payroll system, there was a system to dock pay for officers reporting late to work.

“However, this is just not happening as we keep sending reminders to PPCs and nothing is being done,” Tokura said.

He said they began negotiating the new structure in 2005 and which resulted in the first increment received by officers.