Leonardo Blair,
Staff Reporter
THE JAMAICA Constabulary Force (JCF) is reporting savings of up to $7 million monthly on its telephone bill after giving up 91 telephone lines and enforcing tighter restrictions on the number of calls police across the island can make.
The Ministry of National Security which announced last June that it was servicing a $98 million telephone bill which was partly blamed on the abuse of telephone services by policemen, is now reporting huge savings.
"They (JCF) have reduced the number of telephone lines and Cable and Wireless has done disconnections right across the island. Up to December we had disconnected 91 telephone lines and we are looking at installing a PBX
system which we can use to regulate the calls even more," said
Deniese
Taylor, director of finance and administration for the Police
Unit in the Ministry of National Security.
Before the crackdown, monthly telephone bills for the JCF averaged
some $18 million. That figure, according to Mrs. Taylor, is now approximately
$11 million "and we are looking to bring that down even further," she said.
Last year June the Police High Command said they were probing
a telephone bill which amounted to $66,000 for calls made within a 24-
system which we can use to regulate the calls even more," said
Deniese Taylor, director of finance and administration for the Police Unit in
the Ministry of National Security.
Before the crackdown, monthly telephone bills for the JCF averaged
some $18 million. That figure, according to Mrs. Taylor, is now approximately
$11 million "and we are looking to bring that down even further," she said.
Last year June the Police High Command said they were probing
a telephone bill which amounted to $66,000 for calls made within a 24-hour period
at a small rural police station. They were also probing calls running close
to a million dollars from another station, made over a four-month period.
At the time Jevene Bent, Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge
of Administration and Support Services, declined to name the stations targeted.
She pointed out, however, that disciplinary actions against liable officers
and the disconnection of some telephone lines were corrective options being
considered by the High Command.
The $98 million bill was incurred over a number of months, she
said, reflecting a high level of unaccountability among police officers for
calls made, and they had to put an end to it.
"Our members have to be held accountable as we cannot afford
the abuse of our resources," she said.
In a statement last week, DCP Bent pointed out that since the
December audit of the telephone lines "divisional commanders were written to
and it was pointed out that they needed to accept more responsibility for the
use of the telephone and other utilities."
Already, one station, the Buff Bay Police in Portland has been
reaping much success from its in-house restrictive efforts including the strict
enforcement of the toll call register system where officers are forced to record
all personal calls.
When The Sunday Gleaner visited that station last week
the telephone was securely padlocked in the guardroom with the officer on duty
in charge of the key.
SECURITY MEASURE
"It is a security measure used by our supervisor," said Constable
Shaun Brown. "Persons who make calls have to pay for it if it's not an official
call. We have a toll call register that should indicate how much money should
be paid by each person and the officer who is on duty is generally responsible
for the monitoring of the phones. It has worked. On average we used to have
monthly bills of around $16,000 now our bill averages between $6,000 and $7,000."
In the Corporate Area, a senior officer at the Area Four police
headquarters, which oversees all stations in Kingston, told The Sunday Gleaner
that they have lost lines but declined to say how many.
At the Darling Street Police in Kingston telephone operations
have been tightened to a single line, having lost one which had racked up a
bill of more than $300,000.
NAILED AND PADLOCKED
The single instrument in the station which is complemented by
only a base radio is nailed and padlocked in a wooden box and is controlled
from the inspector's office. Lower rank policeman can only receive calls.
The reactions to the cost-saving measures have been mixed but
most officers have shown indifference to the measure claiming that they all
have cellular phones.
"I see nutten wrong with that. If me don't have no credit all
mi do is go outside go buy a $500 card," said one officer based in Kingston.
"Everybody have cell phone we have no problem with what they doing."
Other stations such as the Orange Bay Police have been restricted
to a $1,000 limit on a cellular phone for the month, to make official calls
but according to officer Clive Blake, the credit is usually finished "within
a couple of days or a week the most".
"When that is finished," he said, "We either use the police radio
or call 119."
