In the procurement of SJSC “State Real Estate” (SRE) for the establishment of the Cynology Centre in Rēzekne, Maskavas iela 30, among six bidders, the offer of SIA “Eltex” was recognised as the most economically favourable, the contract for 282,051.54 euros was concluded with this company, and construction works will commence soon. The future complex will provide appropriate working conditions for cynologists, and training for customs working dogs will be carried out there, which will promote security and combat smuggling, informs Renārs Griškevičs, Chairman of the Board of SRE.
During the works, the old warehouse buildings and garages will be rebuilt in accordance with the construction project developed by SRE in autumn of 2020. Reconstruction works envisage the construction of training rooms and utility rooms for cynologists and working dogs that meet their specific requirements, as well as the establishment of safe working dog welfare maintenance aviaries, that comply with animal welfare requirements.
“Maintenance of objects important for the security of Latvia and the European Union and development of borders is one of the directions of SRE activity. The establishment of the centre will make the conditions for both staff and working dogs more modern and increase the effectiveness of control measures at border crossing points, thus contributing to national security.,” Renārs Griškevičs, Chairman of the Board of SRE, points out.
“With the help of specially trained working dogs, the Latvian Customs Service eliminates hundreds of violations of customs regulations every year, prohibiting the import of smuggled cigarettes and the transfer of undeclared cash, as well as detecting criminal offences related to drug trafficking. The results of customs controls have shown the high added value of using working dogs. Thus, in order to contribute to the prevention and combatting of cross-border crime, one of the important tasks of the project is to strengthen the capacity of the Customs Cynology Service to the global level. The field of cynology, as well as technology, is constantly evolving, therefore the modernised training infrastructure for customs cynologists and working dogs is a very important step for the further development of the service in the fight against crime,” reveals Raimonds Zukuls, Deputy Director General of SRS for Customs matters, Director of the Customs Board.
The Cynology Service of the SRS Customs Board was established in 2004. Currently, 44 specially trained working dogs are involved in customs physical control measures at Latvia's internal and external borders. Working dogs that work at the customs service are trained for the search of tobacco products, drugs and cash. In order to ensure the protection of the public by restricting the flow of narcotic and psychotropic substances, smuggling of tobacco products, illegal movement of cash, customs cynologists with working dogs also carry out control measures in cooperation with other law enforcement agencies, such as the State Police, State Border Guard and others.
The establishment of a modern Customs Cynology Centre in Rēzekne is a vision of the State Revenue Service, which has been purposefully pursued for several years, gradually attracting funding from various financial sources for each stage of development of the Cynology Centre.
Reconstruction of the warehouse building and garages will be implemented within the framework of the European Economic Area financial instrument programme “International Police Cooperation and Fight against Crime” project “Prevention and Combatting of Economic Crimes at the Terehova Border Crossing Point” and will be financed by the European Economic Area financial instrument (85%) and state budget (15%).
In total, 18.3 million euros is currently being invested in the modernisation of the Latvia-Russia and Latvia-Belarus border crossing points. As a result of these projects, by 2023, the staff of border control points will be provided with comfortable and modern working conditions, the infrastructure necessary for border control and customs control will be improved, making the performance of inspections more efficient and faster.
Last year, under the conditions of the pandemic, 17 nationally significant development projects with a total budget of 29.5 million euros were completed under the leadership of SRE. Under the conditions of the pandemic, in accordance with the precautionary and safety requirements, work on 43 different construction objects of national importance with a total project budget of 156 million euros continue under the management of SRE. SRE provides professional real estate management and administration for approximately 400 real estate properties with 1100 buildings of 1.02 million square metres and more than 3600 land properties of 9.6 million square metres. The capital company is one of 23 Latvian companies that have received the highest platinum award in the evaluation of the Sustainability Index of the Institute of Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, confirming the good governance and sustainability of its operations. SRE was founded in 1996, its 100% shareholder is the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Latvia.
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