'Let's Stop Corruption': Police Less Efficient After Reorganisation

Bratislava, October 5 (TASR) - Since the National Criminal Agency (NAKA) was scrapped the police have been left in a less efficient state, as the ratio between managers-regular officers has become higher than before, the Let's Stop Corruption Foundation has warned. On the contrary, the Police Corps Presidium claims that one of the goals of the reorganisation was to increase efficiency, which led to a reduction in the number of managing officers. "The newly created departments - the Office for the Fight Against Organised Crime, the Anti-terrorist Centre and the National Anti-drug Unit - have 406 police posts and 58 managing officers. That's fewer than what the scrapped NAKA had, but the ratio of managing directors per police officer has gone up," stated foundation head Zuzana Petkova. She detailed that whereas currently there is one boss per seven police officers, in NAKA it was about ten. The Let's Stop Corruption Foundation reiterated that a law might have been violated during the police reorganisation, as the changes and personnel reassignments weren't consulted with police unions. Petkova pointed out that the National Anti-drug Unit has a shortage of financial investigators and analysts, posts that have been financed under the Recovery Fund. This development might jeopardise the drawing of EU funds, as Slovakia has failed to meet its commitments towards the EU. NAKA was scrapped during the police reorganisation on September 1, replaced by three new departments. Around 100 officers were reassigned as part of the changes. mf/df/am