Uncle Harvest on 188 MILLION KWACHA NSIPE POLICE UNIT

The Nation Newspaper of Wednesday 19 May 2021has carried a story titled " China Hands Over K188m Police Post."

The Chinese government has constructed and handed over a Police Post worth K188million to the NSIPE Community.

The Post was received by Vice President Dr. Saulos Chilima who comes from the same area in Ntchewu District and is also Minister responsible for Public Sector Reforms. It is a known fact that Malawi's rural areas have very poor access to quality security services.

The construction of this Post at NSIPE will improve access to police and security services to the area.

With improved security, NSIPE will attract more business and social services to itself rendering NSIPE a potential rural growth point economically. The Chinese government has to be commended for such a valuable donation that benefits the poor rural community.

If the cost of the construction of the Post at MK188m is taken as a blueprint, what this means is that for an annual budget line of MK1.88 billion in the Police Development Budget, ten such Posts can be constructed annually and that 50 Posts by 2025.

The delightful thing is that Vice President Saulos Klaus Chilima as Minister responsible for Public Sector Reforms has personally witnessed the miracle that Mk188m can perform.

He needs to challenge the Government's BuildingsDepartment and National Construction Industry Council on this.

The Chinese have proved to us that development projects can be delivered at a reasonable cost.

This is time to act and delivered on behalf of the poor rural people of Malawi.

Ten such Police Posts annually targeting a similar population size would potentially benefit 3 500 000 Malawians.

On top of this, it would assist the Malawi Police Service to move more officers from urban into rural areas.

The Inspector-General of Police and his officers face the challenge of maintaining these buildings so that they last for a long time.

The old policing practice of weekly line inspections that were a follow-up of general cleaning and upkeep exercises(fatigues) of Police Stations and camps must be re-introduced and appropriate disciplinary actions are taken on officers that do not look after government property as expected.