$4.2 million provided for the recruitment of 331 new positions in Police Force

The Fiji Police Force is allocated $182.6 million seeing a slight reduction of $3.2 million from the Revised 2021-2022 Budget.

The reduction results from the near completion of three new Police Stations, in Nadi, Nakasi and Lautoka.

The three stations plus the new station at Nalawa, will be allocated a total budget provision of $10 million, a reduction of $14.5 million.

An additional $4.2 million is provided for the recruitment of 331 new positions.

The Force is increasingly focused on preventing cybercrimes and combating drug trafficking. In order to reform itself to better address these emerging threats, the force is undergoing a major reform and restructure programme, first announced in 2018.

The Force will now continue with Phase 3 of their five-year reform and restructure programme, which was endorsed by Cabinet in 2018.

The programme was halted for the past two years due to COVID-19 and after Phases 1 and 2 were completed at a cost of $68.3 million.

This includes 289 new recruits, 15 promotions, 7 new civilian positions and 20 new government wage earners.

Government will also be providing $4.9 million for the procurement of Uniforms, Uniforms accessories, Clothing and footwear.

An initial allocation of $1.5 million was provided for improving the condition of the police quarters and posts.

The Force is also allocated $1.2 million to assist the Fijian Elections Office to conduct the 2022 General Elections.

Meanhile, the Republic of Fiji Military Forces total budget for the 2022-2023 financial year is $94.1 million seeing an increase of $8.0 million from the Revised 2021-2022 Budget.

$3.5 million has been allocated to meet salaries and allowances of the peacekeeping officers as aligned to the payroll.

$5 million is allocated to correctly align the lodging allowance and service allowance to the current basic salary of 2,396 RFMF officers. At the moment, these officers are being paid allowances based on their 2013 basic pay.

$400,000 is also provided for the Remote Location Allowance for engineers who are engaged to build and maintain rural projects such as Rotuma hospital, Kadavu foot bridge, Lakeba suspension bridge and Bua Lomanikoro foot bridge.

$2.3 million is allocated for the renovation and upgrade works at RFMF facilities, including renovation and upgrade of RFMF infrastructure, construction of a new warehouse at QEB, upgrade of the Logistic Support Unit Complex, upgrade of Sukanaivalu Barracks in Labasa and the upgrade of Nadi Camp.

A total of $50.8 million for Peacekeeping Operations, which is an increase of $5.5 million from the Revised 2021-2022 Budget.

The officers deployed for peacekeeping operations were also paid allowances based on their 2013 basic pay rate, and $800,000 is provided to realign the Lodging and Service allowance for 543 peacekeeping officers on the current pay.

Additionally, $3 million has been allocated for military training and equipment, which will be reimbursed by the United Nations.