Police fails to get bidders for chopper


Despite advertising locally and internationally, Uganda Police has failed to get bidders to supply two engine helicopters to replace the one that crashed in Bugiri District in March 2011.

The chopper crashed in Bugiri District in March 2011

Police officials told the Public accounts committee yesterday that the force was surprised that the advert attracted no serious bidders despite being placed in The Economist, The East African, the New Vision and the Daily Monitor.

“We are planning to repeat the process because the first advert did not get us any serious bidders that we were looking for. The ones that applied did not have what we wanted,” Police undersecretary Rogers Muhairwe said.

Muhairwe told MPs that the matter was more complicated by the fact that there was more money needed to top up what was offered by the insurance company of sh9.7b. The money is still reportedly on an account in Bank of Uganda.

Still new, having been acquired by the Uganda Police Air Wing in 2008, the Police helicopter registration No.5X MAC, Augusta Westland No.119, crashed while coming from Lwakhaka to Kololo Airstrip.

It crashed at Bugiri district hospital after the pilot detected a malfunction. On board were: the then Prime Minister, Prof. Apollo Nsibambi, then Permanent Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister Pius Bigirimana, three other government officials and a crew of two.


All those on board were temporarily admitted in Bugiri Hospital before transferred to Mulago National Referral Hospital for treatment.

The MPs however failed to prove whether the money was still on the account or not since the officials failed to table evidence of the money’s availability in the bank.

They warned that the money could easily be misused if not properly kept.

“You were supposed to procure a new chopper immediately the insurance company paid the money. If up to now, you have not procured one, then the money is at risk of being diverted,” the Committee’s lead Counsel Eddie Kwizera said.

By Mary Karugaba,The New Vision

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.