Police use over K80 million on hire cars

The Commission of Inquiry hearing into the Royal PNG Constabulary has heard that more than K80 million has been used on Police hired vehicles from 2019-2024.

Finance Secretary Samuel Penias on Thursday revealed that about 20 hire car companies were engaged from 2019 to 2024 by the RPNGC throughout the country with Island Mobile Hire cars being paid the biggest slice out of the K80 million.

When asked by the Commissioner of the Inquiry Justice Elenas Batari about whether the Department of Finance can notice if funds are being moved around by the RPNGC and diverted to hire cars, Mr Penias said he is only responsible for checking the compliance process of raising a cheque and that he does not have direct control over how a department handles their allocated budget.

Justice Batari raised concerns about the huge amount of money being put towards police hire cars while the issue of no Police vehicles at the police stations is ongoing.

"K80 million is a lot of money that could have been used to buy a new fleet of police vehicles within the four years instead of throwing away such amount of money to hire police vehicles that are not visible at police stations, "Justice Batari said.

The Commission of Inquiry will be calling up Police Commissioner David Manning in the next week to explain the huge amount of money spent on hired cars.