Estonia's defense minister resigns amid audit findings over ammunition procurement chaos
Estonia's longest-serving defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, has resigned after the National Audit Office flagged disorganized asset accounting at the Defense Forces and the defense procurement agency RKIK. Prosecutors are investigating a possible deliberate failure to submit contract documents.
Hanno Pevkur, Estonia's longest-serving defense minister, announced his resignation on the same day parliament elected Ülle Madise as the country's new president. Pevkur said he was taking political responsibility for shortcomings identified by the National Audit Office at the Estonian Defense Forces and the Estonian Center for Defense Investments (RKIK).
The audit office had said work processes remained disorganized despite the minister's earlier promise to fix them, and prosecutors are now investigating a possible deliberate failure to hand over documents. Particular attention has focused on a nearly €70 million payment to a company that had never previously manufactured a single artillery shell and has yet to deliver a functioning shell to Estonia.
Spending surged faster than systems
Pevkur noted that defense spending rose from €768 million to €2.4 billion over four years as Estonia moved to raise defense spending from 2 to 5 percent of GDP, a pace he said outstripped the IT and accounting systems needed to track the growing volume of assets. He said 32 of 36 audit findings regarding RKIK have already been addressed, with an 11-page action plan now in place listing specific measures, responsible officials and deadlines.
He disclosed that high-risk contracts signed to supply ammunition to Ukraine totaled roughly €500–600 million, funded largely through frozen Russian assets and international donors — about a tenth of a comparable Czech-led initiative worth €4–5 billion.
Pevkur said he was surprised to learn at a Riigikogu committee hearing that the National Audit Office had not received certain contracts, but later found RKIK had sent them on June 5, with a technical malfunction preventing delivery. The complaint that triggered the prosecutors' probe was filed by Center Party figure Aleksandr Tšaplõgin.
