Home Affairs Minister, Joketani Cokanasiga said police officers should not have any reason not to attend any cases.
Cokanasiga said police officers should hire vehicles and attend cases if there are no vehicles at Police Stations.
He said officers can be reimbursed later.
Cokanasiga’s comments come after Chief Operations Officer, Assistant Commissioner of Police Rusiate Tudravu confirmed that they have a shortage of about 79 vehicles that have not been replaced.
He had also revealed that some police vehicles are in bad shape and cannot travel on gravel roads.
Cokanasiga said that he knows the Force has a shortage of vehicles and an application has been made to the Ministry of Finance.
He also said that the Fiji Police Force will be using vehicles from other government Ministry’s and Departments during the general elections.
Meanwhile, some listeners raised concern on our talkback, Straight Talk in the last few days about the shortage of police vehicles and have asked candidates whether they will do something about it if they win the upcoming elections.
The Fiji Police Force was allocated $111.7 million in the 2014 National Budget which is an increase of $19.5 million.
