Estonian Defence Investment Centre Head Admits Error Over Missing €70 Million Contract
The head of Estonia's Centre for Defence Investment (RKIK), Elmar Vaher, admitted that a mistake by his agency caused the State Audit Office to never receive a repeatedly requested €70 million ammunition procurement contract. The problem occurred when sending an email.
The director general of Estonia's Centre for Defence Investment (RKIK), Elmar Vaher, has taken responsibility for the fact that the State Audit Office never received a repeatedly requested contract for a €70 million ammunition purchase.
The State Audit Office had previously criticized RKIK, the agency responsible for defence procurement, for failing to provide the contract despite multiple requests. RKIK maintained that the document had been sent on June 5, but the Audit Office said it never arrived.
On Thursday, September 3, at a meeting of the Riigikogu's special anti-corruption committee, committee chair Anastassia Kovalenko-Kõlvart asked for an explanation.
An error in sending the email
Vaher explained that at 15:26 on June 5, RKIK's head of internal audit sent the State Audit Office four contracts. "We were confident the contract had been sent this way, but it turned out that wasn't the case," Vaher admitted.
He added that he also spoke with State Audit Office head Janar Holm, who wanted to know why RKIK had not sent the contracts. "I asked my people, they said we sent it, and that was that," Vaher said.
In his assessment, RKIK's fault lies in not confirming whether the email had actually reached the State Audit Office. "We didn't upload the files to the cloud," Vaher said, noting that the case involved four PDF documents that were supposed to be sent by email. "I don't understand why the email didn't go through," he said.
Kovalenko-Kõlvart then asked whether, in the case of confidential contracts, RKIK should also obtain confirmation from the State Audit Office that the letter had been delivered. "I wouldn't want to regulate absolutely everything," Vaher replied, though he added that RKIK could improve its document-sending process in the future.
On Thursday, the Riigikogu's special anti-corruption committee held an extraordinary open meeting discussing spending and corruption risks in the defence sector in light of the State Audit Office's review.
