Investigating drug links is not cheap for the North Sumatra Police as they still rely heavily on paid informants to provide information due to a lack of human resources. North Sumatra Police narcotics division head Sr. Comr. Toga Habinsaran Panjaitan said the police could not work alone to stamp out drug trafficking due to limited human resources, infrastructure and facilities, as well as a lack of funds. Consequently, added Toga, the police needed help from various parties, including informants, whom police pay for their services.
“We have to pay between Rp 1 million (US$110) and Rp 2 million to informants for a 1 gram bust, and up to Rp 50 million for a bust of 100 grams of drugs,” Toga told reporters after a stash of drugs were destroyed at the North Sumatra Police headquarters on Friday. He added that police had to prepare funds of up to Rp 1 billion for a case involving more than 1 kilogram of drugs. He said the state, however, only provided Rp 13 million per investigator per drug case.
According to him, the funds provided for the disclosure of a drug case were not equal to the costs assumed by police to pay informants. Toga acknowledged that the budget allocated to investigate drug trafficking cases was very small compared to when he served at the National Police Narcotics Directorate, which disbursed up to Rp 28 million for each case. “At my former work place, there was a budget amounting to tens of billions of rupiah to uncover a major case, while at the North Sumatra Police headquarters, there is no such thing,” said Toga, who has been assigned to the headquarters for a month.
The secretary of the North Sumatra chapter of the Anti-Narcotics Movement (GAN), Zulkarnaen Nasution, said the paltry budget for police investigating drug cases provided an opportunity for police personnel to break the law. “They are likely to behave illegally to cover the costs of their operations. How can they get the money to pay for the services of informants when the budget to investigate drug cases is so limited?” Zulkarnaen told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Zulkarnaen said that police using the services of informants to help solve drug trafficking cases was standard practice due to limited infrastructure and facilities. According to him, more informants were needed to stamp out drug trafficking syndicates in the country; hence, the police should be awarded a substantial budget allocation. He added that the limited budget could have an impact on police performance in the field. “Don’t be surprised if, later on, police release a drug suspect on the grounds of inadequate evidence. This is an impact of the low budget,” said Zulkarnaen.
source : the jakarta post
source : the jakarta post
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