Minister for Defence and National Security Ratu Inoke Kubuabola has called on SODELPA MP Aseri Radrodro to be mindful of the needs of the general populace considering those who will be recruited under the police criteria will be serving the greater public and will need to do so without any excuse.
Radrodro has labelled the Fiji Police Force recruitment drive as illogical and discriminatory.
He has also called on the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination to institute a full scale investigation into the merits of the police selection criteria as it now requires the applicants to possess a full or provisional manual driving license.
Radrodro questioned the logic of the recruitment as this could eliminate potential officers of not only credible and good character, but also discriminate against those who may come from less well-off families.
Ratu Inoke Kubuabola says he is sure the opposition is fully aware of the excuses with regards to the lack of transportation or having no driver, which they like to exploit and use to their advantage against the Fiji Police Force and the Government of the day for political mileage.
The Defence Minister says the statement by Aseri Radrodro is a mere attempt at political point scoring.
Ratu Inoke says the selection criteria with regards to the Police Recruitment Drive was done with a purpose so as to meet the current needs of the organization and was not merely plucked out of thin air.
He says with regards to the ongoing recruitment drive, two new requirements were introduced.
These include the criteria of possessing a valid manual driver’s license which include provisional license holders and computer literacy.
Ratu Inoke says the Fiji Police Force is currently facing a shortage of drivers compared to the number of vehicles that were recently acquired.
He says with another batch of vehicles earmarked to be received in the not too distant future, there was an urgent need to address the shortage of drivers to meet the demands placed on its services.
The Minister says it must also be taken into consideration that 90% of the operational vehicles currently in use by the Force are of manual transmission.
The next batch of vehicles will have 90% also of manual transmission hence the inclusion of the criteria.
The Commissioner of Police has taken all this into consideration and is not only looking at addressing the shortage of drivers on a short term basis but long term as well to avoid the complaints made against the organization as well as meeting international requirements when officers are deployed for overseas missions.
As for the criteria of being computer literate, the Minister says this is mandatory as officers need to be able to operate a computer considering the advancement of technology and the needs set out by the Judiciary whereby all documents need to be typed out.
Ratu Inoke says he would like to ask Radrodro if he will be echoing the same sentiments of the recruit being discriminatory if an applicant is turned away for not meeting the required fitness level or academic qualification.
