SUBANG JAYA, Feb 7 — Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razarudin Husain today issued a stern reminder to all uniformed police officers that it is an offence to accept ang pow, or money packets, in their line of duty.

Razarudin issued the reminder following a recent report of a traffic police officer who was found to have stashed several ang pow amounting to thousands of ringgits in their locker during a random search at one of the city's police district headquarters.

"It is an offence to accept ang pow while on duty since we are already being paid so it is unnecessary.

"Except if we are off duty and we are visiting a close friend at their home during the festivities, that is a different story,” he told reporters after launching the Op Selamat 21 in conjunction with the upcoming Chinese New Year festival at Persada Plus Subang here.

Earlier, Bukit Aman Department of Integrity and Standards Compliance (JIPS) director Datuk Seri Azri Ahmad was quoted as saying his department has commenced an investigation following the discovery of some RM6,200 kept inside money envelopes of a police officer's locker.

He said existing standard operating procedures dictated that on-duty police officer are only allowed to carry RM100 in their possession and any more would have to be declared to their supervisor.

On that matter, Razarudin praised the department’s initiative in conducting random checks, which he said was testament to his February 1 remarks about the need to monitor subordinates living beyond their apparent means.

"This meant that on my urging, officers playing a supervisory role have opened their eyes.

"In the aforementioned case, the supervisor on duty did not fulfil his duties as I instructed.

"A good supervisor will conduct a proper inspection and ensure his subordinates have not committed an offence,” he said.

In the February 1 directive, Razarudin also urged all police commissioners, state police chiefs and district police chiefs to strengthen Regulation 3C of the Public Officers (Conduct and Discipline) Regulations 1993 to enhance the quality of service delivered.

Today, he further asserted that supervisors must check their subordinates before and after crime prevention patrols to ensure they did not possess unexplained sums of cash that may indicate corruption.

"A competent supervisor will search the officer’s vehicle, or their pocket book where the officer will note down how much was being carried.

"We want to make sure the officers are in possession of said amount noted in the pocket book and not of money from ang pows,” he said.