Uganda police force has rejected proposals of ambitious sniffer dog suppliers since it has a breeding and training centre at Naggalama, Mukono District. Since 2010, the police force have rejected proposals from many individuals and companies interested in supplying already trained sniffer dogs at a hefty cost.
Many individuals and companies have written to the office of the Inspector General of Police, expressing interest to supply police with sniffer dogs and charge monthly or sell already trained dogs.
Police has declined the proposals citing that the force has its own breeding centre which now breeds over 40 dogs every year. In one of the documents seen by Uganda Radio Network (URN), M/S Plough (U) Limited wanted to supply two Anti-Narcotic dogs at a cost of 43470 translating into 159.9 million shillings.
“…we supply two Anti-Narcotic sniffer dogs: a German Shepard male 14-24 months old and Belgian Shepard 14-24 months each at a cost of $17,735. The technical training of two professional handlers at a cost of $4,000 for each trainer. The grand total inclusive of tax will be 43470,” reads M/S Plough sniffer dog supply proposal.
In the explanation for refusal of private canine dog services and suppliers, the Inspector General of Police says it is very expensive to rely on private sniffer dog suppliers because it previously proved too expensive for the force since the purchase of a single sniffer dog was always more than $10,000 (over Thirty million shillings).
Police say before establishing their own canine breeding centre at Naggalama, they used to purchase sniffers in countries like US, UK, Germany, Netherlands and South Africa whereby some dogs could die upon arrival yet over $10,000 (UGX37M) would already be paid.
According to the police, some of these dogs could die because of not being used of the terrain and also maintaining them was too expensive. But ever since police opted to breed their own dogs, it spends not more than UGX7 million on breeding and nurturing their own which has cut the expenses by nearly 80%.
“We opted to breed our own dogs to reduce the exorbitant costs we’re incurring by purchasing canine dogs from abroad. But now people are still fighting hard to ensure we incur the costs we’ve been able to minimize for now nearly 10 years,” a senior police officer who preferred anonymity said.
It has emerged that some of the companies pushing to supply canine dogs are owned by powerful individuals in government, security and business circles. A senior security officer cited an example of Entebbe International Airport where police canine dogs have been able to save government over 600 million every year.
“There was a private company that supplied sniffer dogs services to Civil Aviation Authority for Entebbe Airport security. This company was charging over 58 million shillings every month. This would translate into 696 million shillings every year. But we decided to supply 30 free sniffer dogs to the Airport and that cost was removed,” a senior security officer said.
So far, the freely supplied police canine dogs at Entebbe Airport have saved public coffers more than UGX2B in the last three years. A security officer said people who transit through Entebbe international airport and have had a good glimpse of sniffer dogs checking vehicles entering the airport and checking baggage entering the terminal building have approached the force to inquire how they are trained.
According to a senior police officer who has been one of the main overseers of the Naggalama canine breeding centre said he took interest to know more about how sniffer dogs work, how they are brought up, and what it takes to look after them.
The police officer said he visited one the private security company in Uganda deploying dogs and the kennel manager who told him that he first trained as dog handler in Iraq in 2008 and worked there until 2011.
“I later learnt that this person briefly worked in Somalia and returned to Uganda to work for a private company. He was offering services of dogs which he said were specialized in explosive detection at the airport for one and half years. However, this contract was terminated after being tested by a joint force of police, Special Forces and counter terrorism and the dogs were found not qualifying to work,” a security officer said.
Police said after identifying the gap, they decide to breed, nature and train the sniffer dogs. The IGP and canine unit hope to cover the entire Uganda with sniffer dogs in the next five years. This projection is based on the number of sniffers dogs being bred at Naggalama centre and are currently being trained so be deployed for duty.
“I want to tell you that the police force has been struggling to run its projects because of insufficient funding. Some directorates in the last quarters of the last financial year were getting not more than 10 million shillings. Imagine a directorate being given only 10 million shillings or even less to run its activities. So, where would we get money to pay for unwanted private canine dog services,” a senior police officer said.
It remains unclear whether police force will withstand the seemingly determined and powerful individual interested in making a killing from sniffer dog services. It is said that the President has since extolled police canine unit for saving the more than UGX600M that was being spent on private canine dog companies at Entebbe Airport every year.
Other companies which police have declined their sniffer dog services include NMF Kennels. The police has maintained that there is no need for private sniffer dogs suppliers when the force has its own breeding centre and above all, they cannot afford the costs needed by private suppliers.
By URN and Observer