Cops yet to be paid for poll duties
At least 31 police officers, who were part of the 2018 national elections committee have accused their bosses of shortchanging them after giving them a small fraction of the amount of money they were supposed to get during the course of their secondment to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec).
The responsibilities of police officers during the hard-fought election were to maintain order and preventing contraventions of the law so that voters may freely cast their votes.
They also helped assisted voters together with presiding officers.
The officers were appointed by the commissioner-general of police Godwin Matanga in February for contracts running until August 29.
They were involved in various duties, including compiling speeches for their seniors and attending meetings with observer missions.
“We were supposed to be paid from the 28th of February at the rate of $30 per day.
“They only managed to pay for 37 days out of the 183 days that we worked under the committee,” one of the police officers who spoke on condition of anonymity fearing victimisation told the Daily News.
Contacted for comment, Zec acting chief elections officer Utoile Silaigwana referred questions to the police headquarters.
“Check with the police headquarters. All the money for elections was paid by Treasury,” Silaigwana said.
Efforts to get a comment from the police could not yield results yesterday, as national police spokesperson Charity Charamba was not picking calls.
According to an authoritative police source, at least $13,2 million was availed for police allowances, but for the 31 officers, only a small fraction of that amount was paid, leaving an outstanding balance of 146 days, which translates to $4 380 for each police officer.
The officers are now accusing their bosses of pocketing part of the money.
“We were taken from our workstations and we were housed at the Police General Headquarters and sometimes, we would spend the whole night at work.
“That is why we are disgruntled because we were promised that we would be paid our money.
“Teachers and others who had been seconded to Zec were paid their money,” one of the police officers, who was part of the team, said.
The police officer, further said they had checked with some of their colleagues, who are close to the issue who said the money was available but their seniors were singing from a different hymn book.
The issue is also said to have been raised in one of the police meetings four weeks ago, but those handling the case said they were looking into the matter.
They reportedly said they were comparing the 2013 data with that of 2018, so that payments would be made but still nothing has materialised. Daily News.
