QUESTION 3

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 administration and the new Minister of Home Affairs and Internal Security has instructed the CO of the DIS to improve the performance of the Zambia Police (ZP) by implementing the Ministers 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 Zambias 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 (ZMWmillion) 2,248 2,226 2,203

Staff costs (all staff including police officers) (ZMWmillion) 2,026 2,103 2,141

Required

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