In Estonia, former RKIK head alleges Pevkur interfered in procurements
In Estonia, former Director General of the Defence Investment Centre RKIK Magnus-Valdemar Saar said that Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur personally promoted several defence procurements and rejected a proposal to stop concluding contracts through an intermediary scheme. This was reported by ERR News.
Saar and Pevkur were due to take part in hearings of a special parliamentary committee on Monday, but did not appear. The former head of RKIK explained that, due to the investigation by the European Public Prosecutor's Office, he could not verify the facts against documents and would therefore prefer to answer questions in writing.
Saar's allegations
In an eight-page explanation, Saar claims that Pevkur did not merely receive reports as the representative of the contracting authority. According to him, the minister personally initiated and proposed deals, intervened in negotiations on contract terms, delivery schedules, the size of advance payments and, in at least one major case, prices.
Saar also said that in some cases Pevkur directly negotiated with the supplier, urged that payments be accelerated after contracts were signed, and gave instructions almost weekly to the body responsible for concluding the contracts.
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According to Saar, the last two deals in the Datasel case were concluded on the minister's personal initiative. He also claimed that Pevkur had a particular interest in concluding contracts through the Greek company Nordeto. RKIK was urged to act quickly, citing the short validity period of the offer, although delays in deliveries under the first contracts had already been reported at that time.
Proposal to stop the scheme
Saar reported that in late winter or early spring 2025, RKIK proposed in writing to stop concluding contracts in this manner and return funds not covered by contracts. According to him, Pevkur rejected the proposal and ordered the procurements to continue. The minutes of the relevant meeting, Saar claims, are held by Estonia's Ministry of Defence.
The former RKIK director also noted that Nordeto was unknown to the institution and, to the best of his knowledge, had not dealt in ammunition or defence-related goods. According to Saar, the offer was sent privately to Pevkur, while RKIK did not conclude a contract with the intermediary but instead chose the entity closest to the origin and ownership rights of the goods; in this case, it was Datasel. ERR News notes that it was unable to reach Pevkur by phone for comment.
