Procurement officers ask 3 questions on average. The serious ones ask 9. Here's the list we wish more buyers used.
Most procurement teams approach private-security vendor selection the way they approach office stationery: get three quotes, pick the middle one, sign a 12-month contract. It works for staplers. It does not work for the team that walks your perimeter at two in the morning.
We have audited procurement files for clients across Kampala — banks, foundations, hotel groups, manufacturing plants. The pattern is the same: most RFPs ask three or four questions about price and SLA, then go silent on the operational detail that actually decides whether the contract works. After 17 years, here are the nine questions we wish every buyer asked.
1. What is your average pre-deployment training time per officer?
Industry standard in Uganda is 40 hours. Anything less and your guard is on your gate before they understand your radio protocols, your fire-egress plan, or what to do when an unauthorised vehicle reverses up to your loading bay. Ask for the curriculum. If the answer is "it depends on the post" without numbers, treat that as the number zero.
2. Can I see your most recent independent compliance audit?
PSO licensing under the Inspector General of Police is the floor, not the ceiling. Serious operators run an annual independent audit — financial, operational, and HR — and will share the executive summary on request. If a vendor cannot produce one, they have not had one.
3. What happens — operationally — when an officer doesn't turn up?
This is the question that exposes the difference between a security company and a labour broker. The answer should describe a system: a control room that flags missed clock-in within five minutes, a dispatched backup with a documented SLA, an SMS to the client. If the answer is "we'll send someone," you are buying labour, not security.
4. How is incident reporting digitised, and can I see a sample report?
A paper occurrence book is a ceremony, not a record. Modern operators use Trackforce, Patroleyes, or comparable platforms — every entry is timestamped, GPS-tagged, and exportable to PDF. Ask for an anonymised sample report. The quality of the report tells you the quality of the supervision.
5. What is your published response time, and how is it measured?
"Within fifteen minutes" is meaningless without a measurement protocol. Ask: what is the median response in your service area, audited over the last quarter? Is it measured from alarm receipt or from dispatch decision? What was the slowest response in the last 90 days, and why?
6. How long does an officer typically stay with the company?
Officer tenure is the single best predictor of contract quality. Companies with annual attrition above 60% are constantly re-training, constantly making rookie mistakes on your site. Industry-leading operators in Uganda run between 15% and 25% attrition. Ask for the number — and ask for it to be in the contract.
7. What is your complaints process — both for clients and officers?
How a vendor handles their own officers' complaints tells you how they will handle yours. Look for: a written grievance procedure, an HR ombud, NSSF and PAYE compliance certificates, and a wage band that is published. Officers paid late, paid irregularly, or paid below the statutory minimum will not protect your premises with full attention.
8. Are you insured to the level my contract requires?
UGX 2 billion in public liability cover should be the minimum for any commercial deployment. Ask for the certificate, ask for the named insurer (Jubilee, AAR, UAP, Sanlam are the recognisable names locally), ask for the renewal date. Insurance lapses are the most common compliance failure in Uganda's private security sector.
9. Will you give me references in the same sector?
Three references, named, contactable, in your sector — bank, NGO, hotel, manufacturer, whatever it is. The vendor who cannot produce them either has no clients in your sector (a problem) or has clients who will not vouch for them (a bigger problem).
The lesson we keep relearning
The cheapest contract is rarely the cheapest contract. Officer attrition costs you in retraining. Slow response costs you in shrinkage and insurance premiums. Inconsistent reporting costs you in audit findings. The vendor who answers your nine hardest questions first is, by a wide margin, the cheapest one over a five-year horizon.
Whichever firm you end up with — and we hope it is us, but it does not have to be — please ask the questions. Your operation deserves the answers.