District Prosecutor Janno Reinkort of the Economic and Corruption Crimes District Prosecutor's Office said the agency opened a criminal investigation at the beginning of July to examine whether procurement rules may have been violated in the Tallinn Environment and Public Utilities Department's outdoor bench procurement.

"No one has been charged. Evidence is currently being collected to clarify the circumstances, after which it will be possible to assess whether there is reasonable suspicion of a crime," Reinkort said.

The investigation is being led by the Economic and Corruption Crimes District Prosecutor's Office.

Deputy mayor: Every euro must benefit residents

Deputy Mayor for Public Utilities Pärtel-Peeter Pere (Reform) told ERR that full cooperation will be provided to law enforcement authorities.

"There's no question about it – if violations have been identified, whether criminal or not, they must be rectified and those responsible held accountable. The system must function in such a way that every euro the city spends serves the interests of its residents," he said.

When asked whether he believes he has done anything wrong, Pere said this will be assessed by the city's internal audit. The results will be presented to the public on Wednesday.

"If the Central Criminal Police has gotten involved to determine whether any violations were committed or not, then that investigation will have to make that determination as well," he said.

Pere said no deputy mayor is involved in writing or preparing procurements.

"The responsibility and role of deputy mayors and the political leadership is to provide direction on what we procure, with what money, and why, for instance, why we order benches. Of course, a deputy mayor monitors and guides the process, asking for it to move faster, be more precise, and so on. But there is no process in the city where a deputy mayor has to sign any procurement documents," he said.

"If we have procedures and a procurement team, and they have failed, then they have failed, and we must identify what possible violations occurred. Then the system must be fixed, that is exactly why we launched the audit in April, the results of which we'll also present on Wednesday," Pere said. 

Audit report finds lack of oversight

Tallinn's internal audit, in reviewing the bench and outdoor toilet procurements by the Environment and Public Utilities Department, found that the department did not have sufficient oversight of the contracts. Additionally, the descriptions in the street furniture procurement had been based on the products sold by specific companies.

The street furniture procurement, which included benches, chairs, and trash bins was conducted at the beginning of this year with an estimated cost of €5.6 million.

However, according to the internal audit, the technical specifications of the products were based on the features of goods sold by specific companies, meaning that it was practically impossible for others to offer equivalent products.

"Dimensions specified down to the millimeter, exact color codes, designs referring to product photos and drawings of specific companies," said internal auditor Kaur Siruli.

He said competition was in some cases restricted and bidders were treated unequally, resulting in a risk that funds were not used efficiently. The internal audit also found that transparency and accountability were not ensured in all procurement procedures.

"The procurement was divided into five parts, the largest of which — €3.3 million — was won by Extery OÜ, who was also the sole bidder for that part. Thus, there was no market price comparison, and the contract may have ended up more expensive than the market price. The second-largest part of the procurement was won by Dambis Eesti OÜ (contract value €1.7 million)," the internal audit memo stated.

As of June 16, five orders had been placed under the framework agreements totaling €915,000, the largest of which was from Extery OÜ for €669,000.

This article was updated to add comments from Pärtel-Peeter Pere.

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