By Gibao Brima

Promotion whether in the police force or other institution is by any means a motivation for people to continue to work harder by so doing, that institution, organization or company will grow, because the workers will put every effort into his/her work.

However, if a worker is only promoted for the sake of promotion, he will not put any effort into his/her work. And this is exactly what is happening in the Sierra Leone police force today.

It is interesting to note that personnel have been promoted to different ranks but not receiving salary equal to their ranks. This is ridiculous indeed. “To me, this is not a promotion. It is a mere decoration,” a concerned member of the public submitted.

It could be recalled that in 2021 the Sierra Leone Police under the then Inspector General Ambrose Michael Sovula, reverted to the old promotion system with the reintroduction of lower ranks from Corporal, Sub Inspector among others. It was a brilliant and welcome idea even though a portion of the organization fumed at it, insisting it will take a long period for one to get promoted to senior level.

Those ranks which have been reintroduced were dropped by the British born Inspector General of Police, Keith Biddle following the restructuring of the force in 2002 after the civil war.

What officers were expecting is that, they were to receive salary according to their ranks but no, they are still receiving salary according to their old ranks.

Inspector General Sovula is gone and Inspector General William Fayia Sellu is now in charge continuing with the good work.

During this short stint, IG Sellu has made sure that police officers now receive quality rice supply. He has been widely acclaimed for that.

But in spite of this continued effort the IGP is making, the question still remain as to how hard he is working to solve this inherited promotion problem. It is time to see that salary of promoted police officers matched their ranks.

Impeccable sources revealed that salary structure for Directors has been solved by government. That is a good and commendable one.

Notwithstanding the global economic crisis, our officers deserve decent salary as cost of living is ever increasing and some of them are living in rented home. If other public workers are getting decent pay, it is high time police officers receive similar pay. They say what is good for John should equally be good for Mary.

We hope for the better for the police to make them a REAL force for good. They need support since the task ahead of them is not easy but with good incentives they can live up to the task.