WINDHOEK – Police officers in the Khomas Region are still waiting to be remunerated for work executed during the general elections in November last year.
“They won the elections now they forget about us,” a senior police officer, who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation, confided in New Era.
Police officers were apparently promised a daily allowance of N$540.
The police officers further alleged they filled in their claim forms, a process they said should take a maximum of two weeks before their allowances are paid, but almost three months have passed and they are yet to receive their money.
On Thursday Inspector Slogan Matheus of the Police Public Relations Department said: “I can confirm to you that all the members who performed national duties during the elections have submitted their claims.
“Some of the members have already been paid their allowances, while for those remaining the payment process was just slightly affected by the process of reconciling the financial books for the end of the government’s financial year.”
“The police will resume the payment process again soon – we have also made a budgetary allocation within the new financial year 2015/2016 to ensure that all remaining members receive their allowance in full,” he added.
“We request patience from affected members and encourage them to direct their queries to their respective commanders for a prompt response,” the inspector said.
In February, Matheus confirmed that police officers in the Khomas Region did not get paid. “Yes, indeed, it is true that members of the Namibian Police Force in the Khomas Region, who performed official duties during the elections did not receive their money yet,” he said at the time.
The Inspector General of the Namibian Police, Sebastian Ndeitunga, gave a directive that all members of the force – who performed official duties during the elections last year – should be paid subsistence and travel allowance (S&T), Matheus added.
He further said that after the elections members were informed and advised to submit their claims for payment.
“Some members did submit their claims already; some are still yet to submit … Khomas Region is one of the regions with a lot of police officers who performed official duties during the elections, and we are currently busy ensuring that all the members submit their claims, so that all of them can be attended to once and for all,” he said at the time.