Accra, Nov. 18, GNA - Government would continue to improve public safety by assisting the security agencies with the right logistics and motivation to facilitate the fight against crime to guarantee a safe environment for the citizenry.

Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, announced this on Wednesday when he was presenting the 2010 Budget to Parliament in Accra.

He said during the 2010 fiscal year, some interventions including the completion of housing units, introduction of a new community policing strategy and improvement of the operational capability of the security agencies, would be implemented to achieve the objective.

Dr Duffuor said a major achievement of government was the fight against armed robbery and narcotics related crimes with the reduction in the crime rate, especially narcotics and violence related crimes due to measures instituted by security agencies.

Outlining interventions to be instituted to improve the efficiency of the security services, Dr Duffuor said government would complete 38 units of uncompleted housing units across the country for the Ghana Police Service that would house 570 police officers, at an estimated cost of GH¢5.4 million next year.

He said government would introduce a new community policing intervention, where 250 police personnel would patrol commercial and socio-economically important areas in the communities to interact with the people, educate them on security issues while gathering intelligence information.

Dr Duffuor said government would build 50 pre-fabricated houses at hot crime spots across the country to be known as "TENT CITIES" to house well-trained and well-equipped patrol police officers to reduce the police response time and bring the police closer to communities that needed their services.

In addition to sourcing for funds to provide more logistics for the Police Service, Dr Duffuor said, efforts would be made to accelerate the acquisition of equipment, especially fire tenders for the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS). "In the light of recent incidents and in anticipation of long term needs, we owe it to the nation to improve the operational capacity of the=

service," he said.

On the Ghana Armed Forces, Dr Duffuor said government would improve on their combat readiness through the provision of major and strategic equipment requirements. He said that security personnel would be armed to undertake intensiv= e sea and air patrols in the country's territorial waters and air space, especially major fishing communities and the newly discovered oil fields to protect the nation's maritime assets.

Dr Duffuor said government would re-equip and resource the Engineer Corps of the Ghana Armed Forces and establish additional Regiment in the North to support the infrastructural development of the country, especial= ly in the rural areas.

He said the armed forces would be fully equipped to deploy an averag= e of 1,500 personnel of all ranks for internal security operations and 5,00= 0 personnel of for external peacekeeping operations. "Work on the armed forces housing and office accommodation projects would continue, "Dr Duffuor said. 18 Nov. 09