Police slashed budget to fit Govt spending

A police budget review panel early last year told the 12 police districts to cut their budget bids by $3.6 million to bridge the gap between their spending plans and what the Government wanted to spend.

The districts eventually brought their budget bids down by $2.8 million to help make up the shortfall - savings made by reducing forecasts for staff and operational costs.

The information was contained in papers issued by Commissioner Rob Robinson under the Official Information Act. In what officials said was a first, Mr Robinson agreed to lift the lid on the police budgeting process to allow scrutiny of the way his office decided how much money each district would receive.

The papers show that in April, when the districts, along with the commissioner's office and various service departments, submitted their budget bids, they asked for $22 million more than the Government was prepared to spend. That was reduced to $15 million after items such as accounting errors were taken into account.

A budget review panel convened by Mr Robinson asked the districts to shave $3,654,000 off their combined bids.

Mr Robinson asked the districts to stick to strict allocations of sworn staff, conceding that there was a trade-off between blowing budgets by having too many officers on the beat and "asking for too few and creating operational difficulties."

"The bottom line is that we have funding to cover 7000 sworn positions," he said.

The papers show many districts deferred taking on graduates from the police college.

Mr Robinson has since further deferred hiring recruits to save cash, a move which will add to a shortfall of 340 officers by the middle of next financial year.

Apart from staffing, items such as internal and external travel, rents and other day-to-day costs were identified as areas where operational budgets could be trimmed.

In last June's Budget, the Government announced an extra $52 million for police in each of the next three years.

- NZPA