Take up or forfeit your leave days, police officers told

All police officers have been directed to use all their leave days on or before June 30 next year.
The directive follows reports that some government employees, including police officers have been avoiding going on leave to cut deals in public offices when they are supposed to be on a break.

Within the police service, station commanders (OCS) and traffic commanders have been found to constitute the largest number of officers who rarely go on leave. The police commanders have therefore been directed to review, determine and update the pending leave days for all the officers under their command and then prepare the leave plans.

The directive to human resource managers expects them to ensure that leave days, including those already carried forward in the current leave year, are utilised on or before the end of June next year.

“There shall be no more carry-over of more than the designated 15 days unspent leave days into a new leave year. There shall be no further commutation for cash for unspent leave days without the prior written approval,” the directive dated October 9 reads.

In one of the directives to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) officers, those with accumulated or unutilised leave days should proceed on leave as per the leave plan, ‘guided by the remits and exigencies of duty’. All officers with accumulated leave days will have to justify them before they are released to proceed on leave.

“The officers should also provide evidence of application forms, indicating the line manager deferment decision due to exigencies of duty, to justify accumulated days,” said the DCI.