South Sudan Police starts $ 45m rehabilitation project

August 8, 2008 (JUBA) — The Southern Sudan government, in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has begun a large scale rehabilitation and construction work program regarding police infrastructure in the South.

The Project is supposed to rehabilitate nine State Police Headquarters, 21 County Headquarters and 55 local Payam police stations in southern Sudan in order to improve the performances of the Southern Sudan Police Service (SPSS).

The program comes as part of the 3-year USD 45 million Police and Prison Support Project that is jointly funded by the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), and the Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF), of which two thirds comes from the GoSS and one third from the World Bank and other international and bilateral donors.

In addition to rehabilitation of infrastructure, the project is aimed at institutional capacity building and training that includes both the Police and Prison Services.

Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, the southern Sudan authorities are facing the challenge of literally rebuilding from the ground the entire police and prison services.

The current police service is an amalgam of the unified police forces of Sudan in the then government controlled areas and Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement (SPLM) Police. Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, the two bodies became one under the Police Service of Southern Sudan.

The plan for the Police Service for 2008 comprises rehabilitation works at six locations and another five new facility projects in the various states, said the UNDP deputy head in Juba, Shyam Bhurtel. He added “there will also be construction works targeting the Prison Service.”

The UNDP Project Manager, Dan Peterson, said that the original project document was designed to rehabilitate only one quarter of the Police and Prison infrastructure required in Southern Sudan and now the expectations have been further reduced due to the significant increase in the price of construction materials and other commodities from the time when the agreement was made.

(ST)