. Officers are receiving payments below the officially gazetted rates.
. Documents obtained by the Star expose how junior officers are exploited by senior commanders responsible for their daily deployment.
Image: MONICAH MWANGI
Tension is simmering within the police ranks over millions of shillings paid by private institutions which hire officers.
The dispute involves senior subcounty commanders and their juniors across the country. The fresh row comes hot on the heels of a report by the Auditor General on June 4 which unearthed a Sh300 million allowances scandal in which cash was deducted irregularly by senior officers.
Documents obtained by the Star expose how junior officers are exploited by senior commanders responsible for their daily deployment.
In some instances, the commanders slash money by more than three-quarters despite the private institutions paying the contractual sum in full on either a daily or monthly basis.
Some commanders collect cash from the hiring firms or in some scenarios cheques are deposited in personal accounts they operate. The most affected are Administration Police officers.
Many are paid far below the officially gazetted rates for hiring of the police for private assignments. By the nature of their work, officers cannot question, lest they are victimised.
Police spokesman Charles Owino told the Star yesterday,” The officers complaining should be clear about the terms of the contract. Before dashing to the media, they should clarify from their commanders the terms of the assignment.”
“A police officer works for eight hours in a shift. Might the commanders be factoring in their normal eight hours, and then making payment for the extra hours? The circumstances around the contract are not all the same. Our officers know that we have an internal mechanism to solve this type of misunderstanding.”
The anomalies have triggered growing disquiet within the AP ranks, with junior officers grumbling over the injustice.
Officers who spoke to the Star said, for instance, a leading telcos pays Sh2,000 for a 12-hour shift for each police officer. However, a private security firm contracted by the mobile service provider pays Sh500 to each police guard for 12 hours.
The money is supposed to cater for lunch and transport to and from the work station. Officers say the amount is not enough facilitation.
The telecommunication company outsources armed security from the police since its guards have no guns.
In a letter dated January 25, 2019, Malindi subcounty AP Commander instructs the operations manager of a security firm to pay three police officers Sh500 per day for the 18 days they worked.
“Amount payable is Sh27,000 only. Kindly note that the payments are to be made or done before 3rd of next month,” reads the letter.
Junior officers dispute the figures, saying they get well below what the telecommunication company pays.
At the Kilifi county assembly, officers who provide security are paid Sh600 per day for a 12-hour shift.
But documents obtained by the Star show that the assembly’s clerk pays Sh1,200 for each of the four officers who provide security on a 24-hour basis.
An internal email from the county assembly’s Sergeant-at-Arms dated March 13, 2018, requests the clerk to approve payments for the week.
“The purpose of this mail is to humbly request your good office to approve payment of Sh33,600 for the seven days worked,” reads the mail.
Rates gazetted in 2007 require that a constable, who is armed, be paid Sh100 per hour for a maximum of eight hours guard while a corporal gets Sh125 per hour.
A senior sergeant and a sergeant get Sh150 per hour while an inspector, who is a gazetted officer, receives Sh187.5 per hour.
However, some officers alleged a collusion between some officers and the hiring institutions in which deductions are made at the pay point before being remitted to some senior officers’ accounts.
These goes against the Service Standing Orders which states the manner in which officers should be paid and facilitated by the hiring institutions.
“There is no uniformity nor consistency. For instance, an institution hiring officers for 10 hours is being invoiced to pay for only five hours with the remaining five hours payments being directed to personal accounts,” protested an officer from a county at the Coast who sought anonymity.
The officer said in his subcounty, there are more than 27 areas of assignments that hire police officers. Each institution hires between two and six officers per day.
Junior officers said that after paying the police officers who are deployed Sh500 each, the AP subcounty office collects between Sh35,000 and Sh230,000 monthly from institutions that hire between two to six officers, respectively.
“At a casino which hires six AP officers daily, the subcounty AP office collects a lump sum amount of more than Sh230,000 monthly,” said an officer, who sought anonymity, so as not to jeopardise his work.
With 27 areas of deployment in that subcounty, the commanders rake in as much as Sh1.3 million monthly and up to Sh15.6 million annually.
Despite this unethical treatment, junior police officers who complain about corruption and malpractices are threatened.
Many of them chose to remain silent so that they are not victimised by their bosses.
The harassment and injustices have led to some officers leaving the service. Others slide into depression because of frustrations.
But a senior police officer told the Star that before junior officers are paid, some money is deducted being tax for the gun assigned to the officer during such assignments.
“Ask them whether the guns belong to them, and if not so, who should pay for them,” said a senior police officer at the Police headquarters, who also sought anonymity.
A report by Auditor General Edward Ouko shows that senior police officer have failed to account for money received from various government agencies and private entities in connection with securing hiring services.
During the 2016-17 financial year, Ouko says that Sh190 million revenue from the hiring of security cannot be accounted for.
Ouko also raised the red flag on unprocedural decisions police bosses make while hiring out security officers at low rates against the regulations, resulting in huge losses for the government.