Cops double up as finger-print experts in Goa
By IANSThursday, March 25, 2010
PANAJI - The Finger Print Bureau (FPB) continues to rely on police constables for its various functions, which only finger-print experts are competent to do, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report has pointed out.
The CAG report, tabled during the budget session of the Goa legislative Thursday, has also severely criticized the police department for poor planning and failure to utilise allocated funds effectively.
Even though the FPB was set up with much fanfare in the state in 2001, “the bureau continued to rely on police constables for its various functions, which only finger-print experts were legally competent to do,” CAG has said.
The report is also critical about large-scale mismanagement by the police of the FPB resources and data on criminals which is stored in the bureau’s systems.
“A total of 21,000 finger-prints stored in the finger- prints analysis and criminal tracing system (FACTS) database was inaccessible due to failure of the FACTS server in July 2006,” the report states, adding that fresh records of finger-prints had not been entered from July 2006 onwards.
Despite the construction of a forensic science laboratory (FSL) in 2008, no equipment had been procured to make the facility functional for more than two years, the CAG report said.
The FSL was one of the more cherished projects of the Goa police, considering the enormous delay caused in getting forensic samples tested in laboratories outside the state, which further delays investigation.
“The modernisation programmes of the state police force failed in the implementation of various components of the scheme due to poor planning, delays in approvals and delays in release of funds,” the CAG report states.
The report also exposed several other inadequacies in the police department, which includes a 37 percent shortage of vehicles and mismanagement of available manpower.
