Tue, 17 Jan 2017 12:02:51 +0000
By CHIKUMBI KATEBE
GOVERNMENT has set aside funds for the repatriation of retired police officers to vacate institutional houses to leave room for newly commissioned officers in the service, Inspector general of Police Kakoma Kanganja has said.
Mr Kanganja said the Zambia Police Service was already allocated funds to dispatch its ex-servicemen to their respective settlement regions after they attained retirement.
He explained that it was not by choice that the retired officers were being kept in the police camps, but that it was a matter of financial constraints on the part of the service as they could not afford to pay them their dues on time.
“We appreciate their services as our retired have already played their part in maintaining peace and order in the country, and Government has already secured funds for the Police Service to pay for the repatriation of the retired officers.
“It is not that we want them to live in the camps, but that we have had financial constraints which has forced them to stay on after their retirement,” he said.
The Policer IG was commenting on complaints by some retired officers who demanded for the immediate payment of their retirement packages to enable them on with their lives outside the police service.
He said it was true that new recruits in the services were struggling with accommodation because retired officers were still occupying some houses which could be allocated to the new staff. Some retired officers complained to the Daily Nation that they remained stranded in institutional houses as they have not received their repatriation and payment for their leave days.
The officers some of them who retired from as far back as 2014 have continued occupying their institutional houses a situation they described as unfortunate as it deprived junior officers, recently commissioned, of decent accommodation.
They explained that most of them were struggling to get by because they were being forced to stay on in the camps when they should be moving on with their lives outside the service. The officers who explained that some of them worked for the service for over 30 years, and were now being made to stay on in the camps when they should be farming or other sectors of the economy after their service-life. The Police command has assured the ex-servicemen of their pay soon, and that new officers must look forward to more comfortable accommodation.
