You are a financial management consultant brought in by the Controlling officer (CO) of the Department for Internal Security (DIS) in Zambia. The department handles, among other areas, the policing of Zambia. The CO is a government employee reporting to the Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security. The Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security is an elected politician appointed by the President of Zambia. 

 

The government of Zambia has recently changed government and the new Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security, Jackie Chan has instructed the CO of the DIS to improve the performance of the Zambia 

Police (ZP) by implementing the Minister's new mission statement for ZP: "to protect the community and prevent crime while providing a value for money service."                                                                                           

 

Since ZP is funded wholly through Zambia's general taxation, the CO wants to be able to report on whether ZP is providing a value for money (VFM) service as required by the new mission statement. He has heard of the 3Es but needs an explanation of these three headings. Then, he requires an evaluation, using the data given in Appendix 1, of whether ZP provides such a service. He understands that the evaluation may be limited, as Appendix 1 may not give a data set to perform a full VFM exercise. 

 

Appendix 1 

Zambia Police data for each year ending 31 December 

                                                                                                      2021             2020                      2019 

Population ('000s)                                                            11,880           11,761                  11,644 

Number of police officers                                                 37,930          38,005                  38,400 

Number of administrative staff                                         12,320          12,197                   12,075 

Number of crimes reported in the year                            541,735        530,900                 520,282 

Number of violent crimes reported in the year                 108,347        106,180                104,056 

Number of crimes solved in the year                                297,954        300,934                303,943 

Number of complaints                                                           7,624             7,512                    7,483 

Response to an incident within the allocated time limit      84%             86%                       87% 

Cost of police force for the year (ZMW'million)                  2,248            2,226                     2,203 

Staff costs (all staff including police officers) (ZMW'million) 2,026         2,103                      2,141 

Required 

1. Identify and explain the 3Es as per VfM framework.                                               (12 marks) 
2. Using appendix 1, evaluate whether ZP is providing VfM services.                        (13 marks)