Former local police officers in the lurch

ISAIAH MOREWAGAE
Staff Writer | Friday June 4, 2010 00:00

The director in the Department of Tribal Administration, Nametsegang Sekwati, says the reason is that the posts they are holding do not attract such allowances and that unlike salaries, 'allowances are not a personal right'.

Sekwati says this change in job descriptions have been sent to all districts so that all Assistant/Court Bailiffs understand their new responsibilities. The new court bailiffs have not been inducted. 'This is because our recruitment is still going on,' she says.

'The intention is to fill most of the vacancies and then induct them as a group.' Former Local Police Officers transferred to other government departments have been complaining about their new appointments amid allegations that they now earn less than before because the allowance schemes they used to enjoy do not exist in their new appointments.

Last year, the government merged the Local Police with Botswana Police Service (BPS), but not all the officers could be absorbed into BPS and some were transferred to other departments.Those transferred claim that their new jobs do not recognise the allowance schemes they enjoyed at the Local Police Service. These are mainly 15 percent of basic salary as a housing allowance and another 15 percent as overtime allowance.

The concerned officers say life has never been easy for them since the change as they already had financial commitments which their new salaries cannot sustain.

In response, BPS spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Christopher Mbulawa said his department pays allowances to all members entitled to it. 'I can only respond to issues about our members,' Mbulawa said. 'None of our members were given a salary scale lower than what they are entitled to.'

He said when the merger took place, BPS absorbed 1,819 out of 2,038 members of the former Local Police. After the merger last year, some officers did not make the grade to join BPS because of a number of reasons, among them previous convictions and ill health.