"This certainly does not look good. As things stand, I do not see any personal fault on the part of the defense minister. But that in no way rules out taking political responsibility. One does not preclude the other. But that is a decision the defense minister himself can make; no one else can make it for him," Michal told ERR.

ERR asked Michal whether he thought Hanno Pevkur should resign.

"The defense minister will come to the government tomorrow and we will make decisions after that," Michal replied.

"The question is more for the former employees and managers of the Estonian Center for Defense Investments [RKIK] who entered into these contracts and made these payments, even in circumstances where they could have resulted in liabilities for the state, and did not report this either, which I find completely incomprehensible. So I am also highly critical of this, which is why I want to get an overview of the situation," he added.

Michal called a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday for Thursday morning, at which he will ask the auditor general to provide an overview of the lack of clarity surrounding accounting in the defense sector. Commander of the Estonian Defense Forces Andrus Merilo, RKIK Director General Elmar Vaher and Ministry of Defense Permanent Secretary Kaimo Kuusk will also attend.

"I expect to gain an understanding of exactly what the problems are. The broad outlines are already known to the public. But I want to know what plans all those involved have for putting these matters right," Michal said.

"Everyone has their own responsibilities: someone is responsible for procurement and has to conduct background checks — because even Hanno Pevkur's opponents do not think that he personally should have been conducting background checks for procurements; that is RKIK's job — and if someone there failed to do their job, did it inadequately for some reason or provided incomplete information, they will also have to take responsibility for that. I would not rule out civil claims if it emerges that they knowingly provided false information or failed to do something they were required to do," Michal said.

"If goods were ordered that could not be sent to Ukraine because of inadequate quality or because the goods were unavailable, as far as is currently known, there is no way to be satisfied with that situation. And there is even less reason to be satisfied with a situation in which RKIK decided to order additional goods when it appears that the goods previously ordered had not even been received. You can tell from my answers that, to put it mildly, I consider this a very bad situation. It is certainly not satisfactory," the prime minister said.

Asked whether the Estonian state was also prepared to repay €70 million, Michal said RKIK's new director general, Elmar Vaher, should make recovering the money through the courts his first priority.

"I would also like to understand exactly what guarantees were provided by the company or its parent company that they would assume these obligations, but that is something Elmar Vaher and RKIK's new management will have to explain," Michal said.

Michal said he also had questions about why former RKIK Director General Magnus-Valdemar Saar left so abruptly.

"Was it already known at that point that there were problems? It seems to me that this is a hot issue on several fronts and we definitely need to take it apart piece by piece," Michal said.

Michal said he had not been in contact with Saar.

"I think the people who are getting to the bottom of this should be the ones communicating with them — whether that is the National Audit Office, the Office of the Prosecutor General or whoever at the Ministry of Defense is investigating the matter," Michal said.

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