Police Minister William Onglo has responded to concerns raised in parliament and the media, particularly on social media, over the performance of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary (RPNGC), by releasing statistics for years 2020 and 2021.
Minister Onglo said bringing disrepute to the force seems to be the only agenda when speaking about the police.
“When was the last time a good PNG policing job goes viral like the selective bad snippets?
“In the last 2 years, RPNGC received through its Fraud and Anti-Corruption Directorate, 651 cases in total – 487 cases in 2020 and 164 cases in 2021.
“In both years, cases under investigation totaled 522, 383 cases for 2020 and 139 cases for 2021,” he revealed.
The value of the 522 cases totals to a whopping K415.5 million.
In 2020, 34 arrests were made and in 2021, 16 arrests were made. These arrests are valued at K174.1 million.
Minister Onglo added that 16 cases for years 2020 and 2021 have been referred and 17 cases are still pending.
“We now go back to the question, is RPNGC doing its job? My simple answer is a yes and such results and outcomes we all must all circulate and discuss.
“We launched our 2021-2030 RPNGC Corporate Plan as a stepping stone and with the ‘True Cost of policing Report’, we will K1.3 billion in the next 10 years to build our infrastructure, recruit, upskill and right skill our police officers,” the Minister said.