Suffering for police continues as the budget reads and they cannot succeed, says a famous reggae Star, Thomas Hills. With the SLPP 2023 budget, the future of Police officers remains bleak. The budget also known as the Appropriation Act, 2023 makes no meaningful contribution to the lives police officers after long hopes and prayer.

The only hope for the police officers is now the actualization of the wages and compensation policy if it comes to reality.

“Government’s objective in the medium term is to attain a sustainable wage bill level of 6.0 of GDP… continue to pursue the establishment of the wages and compensation Commission to address the wage disparities in government pay roll and ensure fairness, equity and transparency in the determination of public sector wages” the budget reads in part. This means police officers will enjoy a better take home only when the wages commission comes to fruition.

For many workers in the public sector, the wages commission is a mere propaganda by the government. Project for the setting up of the purported commission started years back, and nothing tangible comes out of it. Promises however still continues. It is a popular public view that this government would go out of power next year without fixing police salary.

Doubt about police wage still exists as the budget reader, the Minister of finance promised that the government would keep a watchful eye on recruitment and promotions since the two actions are a big cost on government.

” developing a medium-term wage bill management strategy that will introduce additional reforms to strengthen pay control and management..Ensure that from 2023, the Ministry of Finance does not approve any request for payment of salaries to employees recruited and promoted by MDAs(Ministries, Departments, Agencies) without seeking prior concurrence from the Ministry of Finance” paragraph 61 of the budget indicates. However the allocation of 160 Billion yo the police for effective administration is the only aspect that is clear in the budget. The money us meant for the police high command and not for low Cadre officers.

A good chunk of the budgetary allocation will go into the policing of 2023 elections.

It also remains unclear whether the police willget the exact amount pronounced by the budget reader as 1.6 trillion budget deficit is quite visible.

Government expects donors to fund the deficit and the gap remains in the face of a donor fatigue. The budget is a big disappointment for police officers who expect much from government at this crucial time.