Traffic police revenue targets raise eye brows

Questions have emerged over the role of Malawi Police Service (MPS) in revenue collection after a leaked internal communication showed that the service is supposed to collect K25 million a day from road users.

Some lawyers have argued that the police exist to enforce the law and that while collecting spot fines is allowed, they cannot set themselves targets because doing so is flouting the constitutional and legal mandate of the service.

The leaked document, titled Traffic Enforcement Daily Return, dated December 20 2021, shows that on that day, the police collected K15 872 000 after impounding 701 vehicles.

However, a hand-written note on the document indicated that “as said let’s aim at K25 million as our daily revenue target. K15 million is too low”.

Private practice lawyer Khumbo Soko yesterday questioned the move, saying MPS was never designed to be a revenue collection body.

He said: “They have powers to collect fines, no one is questioning those powers, but what we are saying is that if you set out to say you want to raise K25 million, you are distorting your legal mandate.

“Collecting funds for violations of traffic laws is a by-the-way function, not their core mandate. They are there to enforce the law, provide security and secure rights and properties. They are not revenue collectors, and certainly no one should use them for purposes of raising revenue for the government.”

Soko noted that setting revenue targets for the police can easily make them stray into an abuse territory, as they would be fining people anyhow to meet their target.

In a separate interview, Catholic University of Malawi dean of law John-Gift Mwakhwawa said the duty of the police is to enforce the law and not to set themselves revenue targets.

He said: “One clear thing is that it’s not about revenue collection, it’s not about targets. It’s all about law enforcement and priority that police should have is law enforcement.”

Section 39 of the Police Act empowers police officers to inspect licences, permits and other authorisations as well as to inspect vehicles.