City Police chief responds to overtime anger

CITY Police and Emergency Services Chief Abraham Kanime on Thursday assured officers under his supervision that the non-payment of their overtime last month was merely because the payments were being verified by his office.

City Police officers this week complained that, because certain members are suspected of fraudulent overtime claims, their entire divisions have been punished. Kanime told The Namibian that the officers had been thoroughly briefed about the matter, and therefore had no need to feel cheated.”We have a responsibility to take care of the taxpayer’s money.The verification of overtime payment is part of my responsibility, and overtime payment should in any case only be made after verification,” he said.Should this verification process produce any evidence of foul play, Kanime says this will be taken care of on a case-by-case basis.”But it’s purely an administrative procedure,” he emphasised.He said it was only the crime prevention and traffic management divisions of the City Police that were affected by the decision, and not the fire brigade as well, as reported in Wednesday’s edition of The Namibian.Furthermore, a mistake was made in the report on the matter.Information confirming the chief’s decision was wrongly attributed to City Police spokesperson Marx Hipandwa.The source who telephonically confirmed the information was not Hipandwa, but an officer in his office.Hipandwa on Thursday alerted the newspaper to this fact.Kanime told The Namibian that the officers had been thoroughly briefed about the matter, and therefore had no need to feel cheated.”We have a responsibility to take care of the taxpayer’s money.The verification of overtime payment is part of my responsibility, and overtime payment should in any case only be made after verification,” he said.Should this verification process produce any evidence of foul play, Kanime says this will be taken care of on a case-by-case basis. “But it’s purely an administrative procedure,” he emphasised.He said it was only the crime prevention and traffic management divisions of the City Police that were affected by the decision, and not the fire brigade as well, as reported in Wednesday’s edition of The Namibian.Furthermore, a mistake was made in the report on the matter.Information confirming the chief’s decision was wrongly attributed to City Police spokesperson Marx Hipandwa.The source who telephonically confirmed the information was not Hipandwa, but an officer in his office.Hipandwa on Thursday alerted the newspaper to this fact.