The new policy by the Mahama administration to let oil marketing companies decide the prices of their own imported petroleum fuels is already taking casualties among the public service institutions.

Apparently, the onset of that policy went along with a government directive asking the various oil marketing companies to stop supplying fuel to the Ghana Police Service so the service has grounded hundreds of its operation vehicles nationwide.

Speaking to Today, some police personnel who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed that this round of fuel shortage that had hit the service was but another instance of fuel-obtaining problems the service had had to deal with over the last two years of this current administration.

In the past the problem had hit sections of the service, but now, our source said, it hit the police commands nationwide.

The source further disclosed that for some time now commanders at various units, districts and divisional commands across the country used their own monies to purchase fuel to run operational vehicles.

Inside sources told this paper that the situation was so dire that it was already affecting emergency operations and daytime and night patrols.

The source actually disclosed that the Ghana Police Service was highly indebted to a number of oil marketing companies, which situation compelled the national administration to direct the companies to halt fuel supply.

Non-payment of the arrears over the years, the source said, raised the debt sky high.

And to deal with the situation in some parts of the country, this paper learnt that some police commands ordered personnel to openly collect monies from people who visited police stations and tried to access police service and assistance.

In the current circumstances, another police practice that has become rampant, sources close to the police headquarters in Accra told the paper was the police asking complainants to use their own money to fuel police vehicles before they could go along with them to attend to whatever issues they brought to the station.

The paper discovered that the police asked drivers whose vehicles had been involved in accidents to pay from GHC1,000.00 to GHC1,500.00 or their vehicles would not be towed from the accident spot.

On the other hand, the sources said, the police asked complainants to pay from GHC100.00 to 200.00 before they would get service that was supposed to be free.

When Today contacted the Director of Relations Unit of the Ghana Police Service, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Cephas Arthur, for his perspective on the development, he simply said, “I know nothing about it.”

He explained that the situation of fuel shortage for police vehicles only occurs when the nation is experiencing a general fuel shortage.

Even in such circumstances, he said, some fuel would be reserved for all police operation vehicles across the various police units.

He disclosed that the Service has a specific number of litres of fuel for each police vehicles per day depending on the type of car the station uses adding, “so if any station is experiencing shortage, then it must have exhausted its ration before the allotted time.”

“…and even that any police person or commander who uses his monies on fuel is given back at the end of the month if receipt is provided,” he indicated.