The Commission on Audit is giving the Presidential Security Group the leeway to buy K-9 dogs to secure the safety of President Rodrigo Duterte and his guests.
Under its proposal, funding allocations should be automatically included in the PSG’s annual budget to anticipate the need to acquire new K-9 dogs rather than request funds only when the need would arise.
In a 2017 audit of the General Headquarters-Armed Forces of the Philippines, the PSG notified CoA that it was only keeping 23 military working dogs listed as “effective” as of July 2017 and 18 new ones for procurement under the 2018 budget.
At least 11 of the new dogs were originally requested in 2017 but were funded only under the 2018 capital outlay.
On the other hand, seven more would be acquired under this year’s budget to replace those about to retire.
This was after CoA raised alarm over the dwindling number of active bomb-sniffing dogs being deployed to protect the President and visiting foreign dignitaries.
In a 2016 audit report, CoA recommended urgent acquisition of more police dogs, noting only 20 dogs were left in the rotation, instead of the 25 dogs as required.
Five other dogs are retiring this year.
To address the shortage in the number of dogs, the PSG-Special Reaction Unit, in 2017, borrowed four dogs from the AFP and Philippine Army K9 Units.
The PSG-SRU said CoA’s proposal to streamline the procurement of new K-9s each year to replace retiring dogs was taken up with the OG4 or the logistics office “to ensure a reasonable inventory of effective military working dog complement.”
CoA recommended the inclusion of the procurement of the K-9 dogs into the PSG’s annual budget.
In the past 12 years, the PSG relied heavily on donations to provide for its need to augment its K-9 units, it said, adding such was not practical.