Former Lithuanian military officer says service ended after raising procurement concerns
Former senior Lithuanian officer Audrius Beinoras claims his career was cut short as retaliation for questioning procurement practices in the armed forces. The Defence Ministry says the decision was based on personnel needs and disciplinary issues.
A former senior Lithuanian military officer alleges his career was cut short in retaliation for raising concerns over public procurement practices in the armed forces, while the Defence Ministry says the decision not to extend his service was based on personnel needs and disciplinary considerations.
Audrius Beinoras, who served in the Lithuanian military for three decades, was forced to leave last summer after his professional military service contract was not extended. He was formerly deputy director of the Armed Forces’ Military Conscription and Recruitment Service, now known as the Military Commandant Administration.
Beinoras said the decision was retaliation for questioning procurement procedures and reporting his concerns to the Prosecutor General’s Office. The prosecutor’s office granted him whistleblower status, providing legal protections for individuals reporting suspected wrongdoing. However, prosecutors declined to open a pretrial investigation into the procurement allegations.
He said he raised concerns in 2024 and 2025 over public tenders related to upgrades of the military’s Karys.lt website, which publishes military conscription lists. According to him, the procurement requirements effectively favoured the company that originally developed the website. The tender required bidders to use the proprietary Easy Web4 content management system, developed and controlled exclusively by Fresh Media, the company that created the website, making it impossible for competitors to carry out the work.
Fresh Media denied the allegation, saying all information necessary to administer the website had been transferred to Lithuania’s defence system. The Defence Ministry told Delfi.lt that the procurement process is ongoing and that although the current version of Karys.lt operates on proprietary software, the new tender requires the website to be migrated to an open-source platform.
Beinoras also said he fell out of favour with military leadership after questioning the procurement of souvenirs distributed during some military exercises.
The Defence Ministry said that last year the Senior Officers Career Planning Commission assessed the needs of the national defence system and, taking into account recommendations from Beinoras’ immediate and senior supervisors, recommended against extending his professional military service. Then-Defence Minister Dovilė Šakalienė approved the recommendation. The ministry said that extending a contract is a discretionary decision based on the needs of the national defence system. It acknowledged that seven requests for service extensions were considered at the time and that Beinoras was the only officer whose request was denied.
The ministry also cited disciplinary action against Beinoras after he referred to a subordinate using an insulting Lithuanian term roughly equivalent to “idiot”. Beinoras does not dispute making the remark but says the disciplinary sanction was unjustified and has challenged it in court.
Speaking on radio Žinių Radijas on Tuesday, President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief national security adviser, Deividas Matulionis, declined to comment on the merits of the dispute but stressed the importance of transparency in defence procurement. “Public procurement is a very important area in the national defence system, given that this year’s defence budget is 40% larger than last year’s. Transparent and efficient public procurement is therefore one of the highest priorities,” Matulionis said.
