A policy paper to amend the Police Act [CAP 105] and allow an independent body to be in charge of the selection of new police intakes will be presented to the Council of Ministers soon.
Minister responsible for national security, Andrew Napuat conveyed this to Daily Post, following the alleged ongoing practice that existing force members tend to recruit their own sons and daughters whenever recruitments are made.
Currently, the Vanuatu Police Force (VPF) recruitment process is being carried out by the Police Commissioner and his team.
The new policy seeks to remove the power to make the selection from the Police Commissioner and appoint an independent body, for instance, the Police Service Commission (PSC) to be responsible for the recruitment.
Napuat said the “family business” issue is becoming a norm practice for the important institution and it must be stopped.
The minister mentioned that several Members of Parliament (MPs) raised similar concerns on the recruitment process of the VPF in Parliament last year.
Napuat assured that he would ensure the next recruitment must include candidates from every province.
A part of CAP 105 has been amended and included provision of community policing.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs under Minister Napuat’s leadership is striving to ensure that all government services are decentralised so people in the provinces benefit from government services.
“In line with our vision to bring government services closer to the people, our policy direction is to engage community policing,” Minister Napuat said.
“Therefore, we would want to ensure the new police intakes include representatives from the area councils.
“My vision is to recruit young men and women in the area councils, train these young people and send them back to their respective areas councils. This is so that the country is fully represented.”
There are 18 area councils altogether.
“The figure includes three area councils per province,” Napuat explained.
“The number of area councils will increase to 36 this year.
“Another advantage from this initiative is not only to do away with the “family business” matter, but at the same time, we would have officers who are familiar with their people thus they could work closely with the chiefs and community leaders because they come from the same area.”
Minister Napuat also responded to a post on social media alleging there was a ministerial instruction to include 18 new recruits in the recent police recruitment.
Napuat said the allegations are misleading as he has not seen the list of new intakes.
He said the “18” people mentioned were the 18 candidates that he planned to recruit from the 18 area councils.
The minister admitted that despite knowing that it was not a requirement, he requested of the recruitment committee during the recent recruitment process to include 18 candidates from each area council.
According to Napuat, the Police Act [CAP 105] does not specify police recruitment requirements, therefore the recruitment process could be flexible.
“However, when the final list was out, I discovered that the 18 candidates from the 18 area councils were not included,” he said.
“The recruitment committee failed to consider the request. That is why I ordered for 18 people to be in the list.
“I also noted that the recent recruitment of 35 intakes also include children of current force members. That is the practice that we want to do away with it.”
Napuat said this year, with the increase of area councils to 36, the new police recruitment should include 36 representatives from all the area councils.
Daily Post understands that by February this year, the VPF should have another 60 new police recruits.
source:Vanuatu daily post
Andrew Solomon Napuat 
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