Inadequate official funds compel SHOs to indulge in corruption

PESHAWAR: Contrary to the claims of eliminating corruption from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Police, most of the police stations are not being given sufficient funds, compelling station house officers to manage things from their ‘own resources’.
“Most of the SHOs are not given any official funds for running the daily affairs of his police station and the three to four police posts in his jurisdiction. In fact, the SHO is told to arrange resources for his police station and other expenses on his own and this encourages corruption in the force,” a source told The News.
The source added that the police station was given only 10 litres fuel per day for the patrolling vans. It is impossible to keep the vehicles running for 24 hours. Every police station has five to six vehicles other than official vans, which are mostly case property and are not entitled to get even the 10 litres per day fuel.
Most of the police stations are provided funds for electricity, gas and telephone bills and rent but the majority SHOs have to arrange resources for the police posts sited in his jurisdiction.
“The stationery to the police stations is provided by the office of the district police office, which also pays the utility bills in majority of the districts. However, in case of most of the police posts, the SHOs have to arrange stationery and pay the bills on their own. They either get illegal electricity connections or the SHO arranges money for paying the bills,” the source disclosed.
There are over 200 police stations and hundreds of police posts all over the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Many police posts are set up in rented buildings and only a few are being given the official budget for bills, furniture, stationery and fuel.
“As the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)-led government in KP and the provincial police officer Nasir Khan Durrani are said to be against corruption, they must provide adequate funds for police stations and posts so the SHO has no excuse of taking money from smugglers and criminals,” the source added.
In most of the cases, SHOs are supposed to arrange for daily expenses, repairs, renovation, entertaining guests, petrol for vehicles other than official vans and other affairs of the police station, posts and its officials.
“They earn millions from criminals, smugglers and other people every month on pretext of arranging funds to run the affairs of the police station, posts and patrolling cars,” the source said.
The source added that in many cases the SHOs were asked to arrange for a bigger amount whenever the officers needed it for even certain official work. “This is the major reason that stops officers from laying hand on the SHOs, who on the pretext of running the police station collect and earn millions of rupees through unfair means,” the source disclosed.
“On a number of occasions in the past, if an officer shifted his office or residence from one place to another or needed to renovate it, the SHOs working under his command were asked to foot the bill,” the source added.
The SHOs also gift case property vehicles to their bosses and many of them are found to be fond of these cars. Some of these cars are said to be in use of even those officers who are currently not even posted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
“Among the policemen, there are two popular terms - hard money and soft money. They consider the money earned from smuggling as soft money while that collected from robbers, kidnappers, murderers, pimps and other hardened criminals is called hard money. Many senior cops enjoying reputation of being honest also do not consider taking the soft money a crime,” the source added.
The source continued that a huge share of the budget for repair, fuel and purchases is spent on the maintenance of offices and residences of senior officers who are heading ranges and districts or are posted at the Central Police Office.
“The police stations, particularly the police posts, get only a little share from the official money as the senior officers believe the SHOs can better take care of his need. The SHOs get money the official budget only for special event, task or project,” the source disclosed.
When contacted, Mustafa Tanveer, the personal staff officer to the inspector general of police (IGP), said the police stations are provided sufficient funds for expenses.
He added that the total budget of the KP Police is Rs30 billion per year.
“As many as 88.03 percent of the budget is spent on salaries, 8.35 percent on operational charges, 4.3 percent on petrol, 2.34 percent on purchases and 0.64 percent on repairs,” he told The News when asked as to how much was spent on utility bills and other expenses.
“On an average in Peshawar, 300 litres are given per month (10 litre per day) for a patrolling vehicle (police mobile van) and 30 litres per month for a motorcycle,” he added.
However, there were no figures available with the Central Police Office about the money given to a police station for utility bills, patrolling vehicles other than specific vans, entertainment of guests, rent for police stations and posts, stationery and other affairs, which in many police stations goes up to hundreds of thousands of rupees every month.