By LORRAINE WOHI
TOTAL of 155 reservists who graduated from the Bomana Center of Excellence will now be part of the police operating team in the upcoming national election.
They include 14 females and 141 males who have passed out after a six weeks of intensive training which covers 52 units which started on February 7.
Assistant Police Commissioner Human Resources Samson Siguyaru said the recruitment of the reservist was part of the Government’s call in beefing up security personal numbers during elections as the normal recruitment process for police is lengthy. Deputy Police Commissioner Donald Yamasombi said during the graduation ceremony on Friday that these 155 reservists will serve within the National Capital District and Central Province.
He added that off the graduating batch, eleven were from the Motu Koitabu Assembly whilst the rest will be directly engaged by the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.
The 155 are part of the 250 who have been recruited in the new reservist recruitment drive initiated last year. Siguyaru said the 155 who have graduated were the first batch of the Police Reservist from the initial total of 1000 that were expected to be recruited.
“And 250 will start their training on April 25, while the remaining will begin training after the elections,” he said.
Siguyaru said most of those who passed out are professionals and working class people and are not from the unemployed youths.
He said after the elections, they will send them back to their own provinces to support their Police Station Commanders and work in their own areas.
“We are still working on the arrangement MOU between the provincial government and the police so that we do the recruitment and their welfare will be taken care of by the provincial government,” Siguyaru said.
“These MOU goes together with the recruitment program and the welfare part of the program will go back to the provincial government, while the training and recruitment will be dealt with by the police.”
A total of nine instructors, including the chief Instructor from the Bomana Collage of Excellence as well as external presenters from Transparency International and Saint John Ambulance were part of the training instructors.
The Reserve Branch of the Royal PNG Constabulary under the Police Act 1998 gives mandate to the 155 to effectively carry out their duty.
