Can Single-spine Salary For Police Stop Police Bribery And Corruption?

The government's effort to remove the anomalies, injustices and deficiencies in the general salary structure of Ghanaians has been applauded by a section of Ghanaian workers but disapproved by others. However, it is the intention of the government to make sure that workers of similar qualifications will receive similar salaries. For example a person holding Bsc. Admin and working at PWD will receive a similar salary structure as a person with similar qualification working at SSNIT. This will, however, depend on experience and number of years on the job.

The objective of this article is to consider the impact of the single-spine salary on police corruption and bribery. Single-spine pay structure simply means having a single pay plan whereby employees in the same pay scale are paid equally. Every job has been valued and placed on a scale between one and two hundred. This new and improved pay structure came about as a result of consultations between government, Fair Wages and Salary Commission and the unions.

It is interesting to note that the single-spine salary structure for the police was the first to be announced in Ghana. There are obvious reasons for this. Some of the reasons are that, the government wants to use the new increment in police salary to assure them that the government has not closed its ears to their numerous problems. The government is also telling them to gird up their loins since they are going to be the main providers of national and regional security. The police were extremely happy and satisfied. Their salaries have gone up by almost 300 percent. Certain institutions like the Fire service and teachers of the country's polytechnics felt unjustly treated since they have still not yet been covered by the single-spine salary. They have held series of demonstrations to protest against the injustices of the system as applied to their members.

The Police Force, however, is quiet and jubilant. It is not surprising because the police have, for a long time, been one of the lowest paid in the country. The single-spine salary structure has helped their situation somehow. Their living conditions are very abyssmal. The government has promised an improvement to their living conditions. It is, indeed, a sorry sight to see a policeman, wife and about four children living in a single room apartment. Logistics and equipments were almost not available. Sometime ago when you go to the police station to report a case or to lodge a complaint, you had to provide a pen yourself to write your case because there were no pens available. In their attempt to make ends meet, the police resorted to the easy method of collecting bribes. Drivers without driving licences, car insurance or road-worthiness certificates ply the roads with impunity because they know that the traffic police will only take a bribe from them and leave them to go. Every Ghanaian knows the consequences of this in terms of the deadly and avoidable accidents we see on our roads.

With great improvement in the salaries of police and the promise from the government to provide them with better accommodation and logistics, one would expect hardwork, strict intelligence and uncompromising attitude by the police towards the implementation of the rules and code of ethics of the police service without resorting to bribes. A man who recently called to contribute to a radio discussion said, "the police must be extremely satisfied and grateful for their new salaries. They should consider the increase as monthly bribes paid to them and therefore they should desist from taking bribes and work hard to ensure peace on the Ghana roads." The comment seems to suggest that the government has taken the plight of the police seriously and therefore the increase in salary is to help prevent the taking of bribes so that offenders will be charged in court and monies collected will go directly into government chest.

Despite all these the police still take bribes from drivers and other wrongdoers. Bribery and corruption are still rampant even with the new and improved salary structure for the police. What the government can do is to have twenty four hour toll-free numbers where drivers and passengers can call to report a policeman who takes bribes. Such a policeman when caught must face disciplinary action or dismissal. An action swiftly taken will scare other policemen from taking bribes. The goverment can hire agent provocaters who may act as passengers or drivers to check police behaviour on our roads. For this to be possible the government must be determined and purposeful. This will ensure that monies collected from offenders in court in the form of fines could be used for the country when they go to the government

The police have been motivated enough but they are unable to bring crime and accidents under control. The report made by Amina Muhammed concerning armed robbers who dispossesed passengers in a Tamale-bound Yuton bus of their properties and money and allegedly forced them to sleep with one another, shook the police to their bones. The action they took in arresting Amina was a desperate attempt to get Amina to deny the incident in order to defend their new salaries. Ever since they got their salary increments they have lost complete control of their ability to flush out criminals from the system. The issue of the ardent criminal, Johnson Combian's sucess, in eluding the police of his whereabouts is a case in point.

Everyone is hoping to see the end of corruption, inefficiency and bribry by the police, now that their salaries have gone up. But we will be living in a fool's paradise if we think that will ever happen.

Written by: Stephen Atta Owusu Author: Dark Faces At Crossroads Email: stephen.owusu@email.com