REPORTS BY ISAAC NICHOLAS

POLICE and Correctional Service will have to foot the repair bill of more than K8.5 million in damages to Parliament during the rampage over APEC allowances on November 20 last year.

This was one of the six recommendations made by acting speaker Jeffrey Komal when he presented the damage assessment report, which put the total damage, personal damage, loss or theft of property, personal injury and trauma cost at K8,539,755.04.

Mr Komal said the total cost would have to be paid by the government because the Parliament became an “unnecessary victim” of actions of ill-disciplined officers of the disciplined forces.

He said the report was received, considered and accepted by the house committee at its meeting on Tuesday this week.

He said items that were destroyed, damaged, taken, or removed from the building included:

 personal property — mobile phones, harddrives, tablet, several laptops, digital camera, bags, reading glasses, watch, cash and a chef’s uniform totalling K126,842.83;

 personal assault/injury/trauma to parliament service staff — one employee was thrown into the fountain, another beaten unconscious, while a third was thrown down the flight of stairs at a cost of K1,650,000;

vehicle damage — several state-owned vehicles, hired vehicles and private totalling K200,500.01;

 parliament building, furniture, equipment damaged/taken — glass panels, computers, laptops, security access for doors, x-ray screening machine at the gate, picture frames, refreshment rooms, security houses, elevators, door locks and flower pot valued at K165,904.30; and

 national and provincial symbols — national flag, parliamentary flags and provincial flags were taken down and torn at a total cost of K20,856.

“This is a lot of money which the country can least afford to spend at this time of our financial situation. Even the national parliament does not have this kind of money to spend,” Mr Komal said.

Among the six recommendations made to protect the Parliament, its occupants and also to prevent similar actions happening in future are:

 All security assessment be carried out immediately on the status of security personnel, equipment and procedures to ensure this type of incident does not happen again;

 Any repairs to the parliament building (especially glass repair) must comply with the current building codes and standards;

 The cost to be submitted to the Finance Department or the Police and Correctional Service to pay based on the provisions of the Organic Law on relief of members of disciplined forces from the responsibility for the consequences of carrying a lawful order; and

 The cost of damage must not be taken out of the national parliament service recurrent budget for 2019 as it would impact heavily on the daily operations of the Parliamentary Service.