A high number of Police Officers have long outstanding leaves, which is a big liability for the Government.

The Vanuatu Police Force and the Commission have developed a leave management plan that will be implemented to address this issue.

The implementation of this management plan will see the Vanuatu Police Force releasing some officer for leave starting next month.

Minister of Police, Andrew Napuat, said it will follow a management plan to address the growing liability of outstanding leave of force members.

“VPF under the MOIA has put out an order that has been signed by the Commissioner to all commanders and now it is being implemented. We see that liability will not continue to grow and it will be reduced in a way that the management plan will allow officers to take leave. It will stop some of the liability that has accumulated and cost the Government big money.”

Napuat said the plan will also allow promotion of officers to take up positions when others are on leave.

The long outstanding leave of Vanuatu Police Force members is due to the shortage of manpower in past years.

“The strength of the force now is around 1000 and that is why there is enough manpower to make decisions in terms of leave management. Before, when they sent out more officers on leave, there was a gap in the VPF. But now, with more recruits every year, the strength is good and officers can take leave without much gap.”

Minister Napuat said with this new management, the Vanuatu Police Force can deal with this issue which many other commissions are also facing.