Packaging problem

[George Bonser <grep@shorelink.com>]

I am attempting to port a newer version of dpkg to a local archive here
for slink.  I got the source, did a dpkg-source -x dpkg-1.4.1.4.dsc and it
unpacked fine. I did a cd to the new directory that it created. Then I did
a

dch -v 1.4.1.4.slink "Ported to slink by George Bonser
<gbonser@opensource.captech.com>"

And that seemed to go ok. 

Then I tried to build the package (using debian/rules build and
dpkg-buildpackage ... both produce teh same result)

And it seems that the makefile does not pick up the version.  The SCRIPTS
to, it creates dpkg-.deb in debian/build but then tries to copy
dpkg-1.4.1.4.slink.0 and does not find it.

Anywhere in the makefile that references VERSION returns a blank string.

Did I forget a step or is there a bug?

If I simply unpack the package and build it, it works fine.