By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
The Sierra Leone Police has come under pressure to get a separate budget line for its Family Support Unit (FSU).
The call from civil society groups and some members of the general public comes as the police presented its budget estimate and strategic plan for the year 2020 at the ongoing budget discussion forum.
The call for a separate budget line for the FSU is part of campaign to strengthen the ability of the unit to enable it adequately tackle Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV). The unit has been largely dormant thanks to underfunding.
Following the presentation of their budget on Monday, Assistant Inspector General, Patrick Johnson, told journalists that they will consider calls to have a separate budget line for the unit.
“There has been request from members of the public, that is going to be taken into consideration and it is left now with management, but we will come up with something good. FSU is part of the Police. It is not a separate body, these are just units and they are all under the vote controller, who is the Inspector General of Police,” AIG Johnson said.
In the budget, the SLP states Le320 million as support for the FSU. Civil society groups say this amount is a drop in the bucket for what the unit really needs to tackle SGBV.
The Center for Accountability and Rule of Law (CARL) has been leading calls for increased funding of the FUS. Its representative at the budget hearing on Monday, Prince Bull, cited a study they did on the operations of FSUs around the country which indicated that the unit will need at least Le 13billion annually to be properly operational.
“What the FSU needs to make it very operational is; recurrent budget Le 8.1 billion and for development and expanding the FSU they will need Le 5.6 billion. It’s a total of Le 13.7 billion, this is an annual budget,” Bull told Politico on the sidelines of the discussions ongoing at the Miata Conference Center.
Le 13.7 billion is just over 10% of the total allocation the SLP is requesting for the 2020 financial year, which is Le 92 billion. Le50.4 billion of this money has been set aside just for the procurement of rice for police personnel.
The Chairman of the budget hearing session on Monday, Alpha Bangura, said: “I think it will be right for CARL and the Police to have a bilateral engagement on this. The ministry will be willing to have a separate budget line for FSU if you want it, because this is a very important issue.”
CARL said they are willing to work with Police on the issue. But it is not clear whether the Police will really consider CARL’s request of Le 13.7 billion for FSU.
AIG Johnson said: “That’s a huge chunk of our budget. As you can see, rice alone takes almost 60% of our budget. But also, don’t forget, as they (FSU) are part of the Police, they get things like fuel, impress; in terms of their travelling to investigate matters they get per diem.”
“The funds are not enough, we are managing with what we have, and this impacts all other units, not only the FSU,” he added.
SLP’s budget is just within the ceiling they were given by the Ministry of Finance.
But Bull said lack of finance is not an acceptable excuse.
“This is not Police’s money; they have not received the money. So, Police should not pretend as if they have been given the money and we are trying to reduce it. Yes, the Ministry of Finance gave them a ceiling, but the Minister also said on the opening day that if you have creative ideas, bring them and we can negotiate that,” the activist said.
“As a matter of fact, Police should even embrace this. We cannot do this without their support. We are doing this for them and with them,” Bull added
Whiles the clamor for more budgetary support for the FSU continues, figures from the Police itself indicate that between January and July 2019 this year 6, 784 SGBV cases have been reported, emphasizing the need for more budgetary support.
Last month, Parliament of Sierra Leone passed an amended Sexual Offences Act which was a response to the increasing spate of SGBV. And for the law to be effective, a well efficient FSU is crucial.
© 2019 Politico Online
