The Royal PNG Constabulary (RPNGC) is concerned over the Red Sea Barracks issue and is doing everything possible to rectify the problem in consultation with the Police Minister.
Acting Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Operations, David Manning, today accompanied Police Minister Bryan Kramer to the Red Sea Barracks at Bomana to address grievances raised by members of the Constabulary over sewage problems affecting the residents over the past few weeks.
Police families living in the 150 houses vented their frustration by barricading the barracks when the sewerage system clogged up and emitted stench, posing health risks for them over the past few weeks.
According to Acting DCP Manning, the barracks was a project directly negotiated between the previous government and the contractor Red Sea but the sewerage treatment plant was not installed because some payments owed to the company were not paid.
Manning said the Minister and the RPNGC management have now met and discussed a way forward with the contractor and the sewerage treatment plant sought from abroad should arrive in the country within a few weeks’ time.
He said Minister Kramer has given an undertaking to the contractor for the government to service the outstanding debt totalling several millions of kina.
Manning expressed that the new RPNGC management is committed towards ensuring that police personnel were adequately accommodated and looked after.
He said if members of the Constabulary were happy and content, they would reciprocate the same gesture by committing themselves more to their duties and obligations to the state and the country. And effective police operability across the nation depends on how well members of the Constabulary are accommodated and remunerated by the Constabulary and the state.
(Acting Deputy Commissioner and Chief of Operations, David Manning)