By Daniel Namwini
Lilongwe, September 15, Mana: Commissioner of Police responsible for Central West Region, Merlyne Yolamu, says the Malawi Police Service (MPS) is on a mission to uphold and restore public trust that has faded out in the past years.
Yolamu told Malawi News Agency (MANA) in Lilongwe that MPS has established an audit committee to improve their service delivery in the country as one way of restoring the lost trust.
“The committee will assist police officers to work professionally whereby they will be investigating the performance of officers in all the departments such as finance and administration, traffic, research and planning among others,” she said.
The commissioner who is also the Chairperson of the committee said police will provide capacity building to officers in those mentioned departments in the country so that they can provide quality services and respond positively to the demands of the general public.
She further said that they will make use of a survey conducted in 2019 by the National Initiative for Civic Education (NICE) Trust to assist them conduct their duties in a professional manner.
According to Yolamu, the survey revealed a number of factors that broke the relationship between the police and general public such as police corruption, abuse of power and favoritism among others.
“21 percent was due to corruption, 20 percent police partisan, 10 percent favoritism, 10 percent unreliability of police to carry out operations effectively, eight percent abuse of power, seven percent use of brutal force and violence.”
“The remaining percentages fell across knowledge of the law, rights and responsibilities for the public and police, destructive and criminal behavior by the people, public misunderstanding of police operations, being part of crime syndicates, and immoral conduct by the police,” she pointed out.
Sub-Inspector Michael Gondwe for Kanengo Police Station promised to uphold their professional and ethical standards when carrying out their duties.
“The customer care and professional code of ethics trainings that are provided to us from the committee will help us to refrain from corruption practices and other malpractices that destroy our reputations,” Gondwe promised.
He added that they would also refrain from gender-based violence in their families and drunkenness so that they can re-build confidence and trust that has faded out in past months and years.
