Shania Shayal Prasad 
A proposal has been drafted suggesting an extension of allowances to various police divisions, such as band officers, water police, and police divers.
Presently, these allowances are exclusively granted to special operations officers.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Aporosa Lutunauga highlighted this while making a submission on the Fiji Police Force 2021–2022 annual report this week.
“It includes band allowance for our band officers because of the nature of music. And some of them have been seen to be affected by the performance of blowing those trumpets and hearing loud music. Seagoing allowance for our divers, for our water police, and also our diving allowance for our divers.”
ACP Lutunauga also pointed out that efforts are underway to guarantee equitable compensation for personnel engaged in high-risk operations.
He has disclosed that recommendations have been put forth to introduce allowances for rural and maritime remote stations.
“This is specifically for the drug operations and those scenes of crime. That is a case of national-interest murder. Where people go in, they need to be compensated specifically for drug operations, where they carry the marijuana from the fields. And it also affects them when some of them come back and are tested. They test positive for cannabis just by handling those drugs.”
This move, ACP Lutunauga adds aims to address compensation disparities and ensure a balanced approach across the force.
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