Manning pleased with budget

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
ACTING Police Commissioner David Manning has praised the Marape-led Government for increasing the budget for police next year, focused on general duty policing and community policing.
“Although we made a submission for K420 million and got K380 million, this is a big increase since 2010,” he said. “And I will make sure that our budget of K380 million is expended with transparency and accountability.”
Manning told The National that the police budget was focused more on general duty policing at the police station level and community policing around the country.
“It is more focused on improving the working environment of police officers at the station level,” he said.
Manning thanked his divisional and provincial police commanders for presenting their submissions to the budget allocation committee three months ahead of the deadline.
He pointed out that budget allocations only represented approved expenditure and did not translate to the actual funds received.
“(For example in) the 2019 budget, (police were) provided K309 million.
“However, due to Government cash flow constraints, this amount was cut down to K274mil following the 2019 Supplementary Budget.”
Manning said such “inconsistency” made it difficult for the police to fund and equip operations or meeting the welfare needs of members.
“So in partnership with the Australian Federal Police, the police force submitted budget papers three months ahead of schedule, requesting a funding of K420mil,” he said.
“It is also encouraging to note the 2020 Budget papers projected a K430 million allocation for police in 2021.”