Estonian committee questions officials over defence procurement risks

Estonia’s parliament anti-corruption committee will question defence officials and company representatives about corruption risks in the defence sector at a public hearing on Monday, ERR reported.

The hearing, which begins at 1:15 p.m., will be broadcast live on the ERR website. Those invited include Elmar Vaher, director general of the State Defence Investment Centre, representatives of the Indian company Datasel from the LINKLaw law firm, Tiina Uudeberg, chancellor of the Ministry of Justice and Digital Affairs and a former deputy secretary general for defence planning at the Ministry of Defence, and three Ministry of Defence officials.

The officials are Ahto Soorm, head of the ministry’s security and internal control department; Marika Tuusis, head of its defence capability department; and Margit Gross, deputy secretary general for legal and administrative affairs, serving as chancellor.

“We have still not received documents or correspondence that would provide a complete answer to a very simple question: where and through whom did contact begin with both the Indian company Datasel and the Turkish company ARCA Defence?” committee chair Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart said.

She said the committee wanted Datasel’s representatives to explain directly how contact with the Estonian state began and whether intermediaries were involved.

Kovalenko-Kõlvart said a more serious issue concerned incorrect information given to parliament during the state budget process. Parliament was told there were no risks, and the same claim was included in the state budget, she said.

However, documents reviewed by the committee at the State Defence Investment Centre showed that the Ministry of Defence had been informed of the risks from the outset and had agreed to assume them, Kovalenko-Kõlvart said. She added that the centre had already proposed in autumn 2024 that new intermediary agreements should not be signed in that form.

The anti-corruption committee has previously discussed defence-sector funding and problematic ammunition contracts at two public hearings. It has also visited the State Defence Investment Centre to examine contracts and other documents.