The Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGP) Major General Katsigazi Tumusiime has appealed to the government to increase funding to the force.
This, to Gen Katsigazi will enable the institution to cope with mobility challenges.
Maj. Gen Katsigazi made the call on Thursday during a familiarisation tour at the Police Mechanical workshop in Kampala where he met with the managers and engineers of the institution.
He was shown the fleet that are broken down, and the staff also presented him with challenges faced in its maintenance which he promised to forward.
“As police management, we request for additional support from government to ensure that the maintenance budget is increased, to enable our fleet go back on road to address the challenges of lack of mobility in the force especially upcountry,” he said.
The D/IGP added that there is also a need to service the grounded fleet due to wear and tear and those from accidents to have them serviced and ready for work.
Gen Katsigazi noted that there is a need for security to have all the highways covered as a way of increasing the visibility of patrols and protection on Highways.
He further cautioned police drivers involved in accidents due to reckless driving that action will be taken.
“We are going to see to it that whoever drives recklessly and causes an accident is punished according.
He also promised that the force will carry out more training to increase the efficiency of police drivers, and that fleet is a lifetime of the force and without mobility, the whole institution is down.”
His requests comes at the time when Police’s budget for the next Financial year suffered a reduction of Shs 95.979bn. According to the budget Framework which was presented to the Parliamentary Committee of Defence and Security in January, it was cut from Shs936bn to Shs840.181bn.
Since the current leadership took power four years ago, Police has been struggling with budgets cuts where every Financial Year their budget is cut.
According to Aggrey Wunyi, the Undersecretary from Uganda Police Force, currently Police needs over Shs2.6trillion to smoothly operate, however with the current status of the state coffers it’s still very impossible.
Apart from mobility challenges, the Police is also facing a serious challenge of housing. It’s still facing a housing gap of 43,000, costing over Shs37m per unit, in total Shs1.59trillion yet it given Shs43.345bn on housing.
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