Lithuania's military has recorded more than ten corruption cases that are now being investigated by law enforcement. However, an officer who reported one such case said he was forced to leave the service.
In May last year, an officer in charge of supervising repair work in the Rukla military base was summoned for a private talk. He met with a person representing a company that was hired to replace kerbs at the base.
The day before, people at the base had noticed that the repair works were defective – the kerbs were of the wrong size and they looked like they were built not according to the specs. However, the officer was asked to “look the other way”, as no one “will check and notice”.
Then, he was offered a bribe for turning a blind eye – a set of tiles for his home to be brought by the company. A week later, 60 pieces of white tiles, costing around 380 euros, arrived at the home of the officer.
However, the officer who took the bribe was secretly recording the process in cooperation with law enforcement.
The company representative who offered the bribe was found guilty but escaped criminal liability. Through its sources, LRT was able to identify the company at the centre of the case – Egsta.
This was not the first time it came into conflict with the military.
A year prior, in 2023, an officer had other cases of unfinished work, even though the services were paid for.
There was also a case of a potential conflict of interest. Another officer serving in the logistics unit had previously worked for Egsta and may have been involved in the cover-up of the unfinished work. He also tried to help another company – which was managed by his brother-in-law – win public contracts, leading to the involvement of the defence ministry's anti-corruption watchdog.
The information was then passed on to the military police. However, the officer was simply advised to sort out his public and private interests and faced no liability.
“The lieutenant is currently serving in the national defence system, but measures have been taken to manage the conflict of public and private interests,” the Defence Ministry told LRT in a written reply.
Meanwhile, the officer who recorded the cases of corruption has since retired from the military.
“Why do you need to complain to every institution of the military?” his superior allegedly asked him. According to the officer, he was pressured to “cool down”.
Later the same year, he was told he would be rotated and sent to another base. However, he refused and thus left the service.
Before leaving, the officer turned to law enforcement to record the bribe in the form of tiles. He then left the force, fearing reprisals from his superiors.
“Rotation is a common practice in the military,” the Defence Ministry said. “Officers serve for a maximum of three years from the date of appointment [before rotation].”
The ministry refrained from commenting on the officer’s situation, saying it was “difficult to assess individual cases”.
Ongoing contracts
Egsta won eight contracts with the military worth 900,000 euros in 2023 and 1.1. million euros last year. Some of the contracts were signed when the corruption investigation was already underway.
“If Egsta is found to have committed irregularities, immediate legal measures would be taken to restrict participation in public procurement,” said the Defence Ministry.
So far, Egsta has not appeared on the list of “unreliable suppliers” which would bar it for three years from participating in public tenders.
“As long as there is no criminal offence, there is no legal basis for blacklisting the company,” Dainius Ivoškis, chancellor at the Defence Ministry, told LRT.
Nijolė Garbauskienė, the head of Egsta, told LRT she could not comment on the bribery cases, saying the offer of bribing the officer with tiles was done under the initiative of an employee.
She also would not comment on the other investigation where the company is accused of not carrying out the contracted works.
Anti-corruption watchdog to be established
According to official data, the Defence Ministry received 19 reports between 2023 and 2024 of possible corruption, half of which were fully or partially confirmed.
“We see that public attention is shifting towards the military, we see that funding for defence is increasing and we want to increase confidence in the system,” said Ivoškis.
According to LRT sources, former military officers have founded companies that are now competing for contracts. The process is then helped along by a network of former colleagues.
“In the defence system, all suppliers should be vetted,” Elanas Jablonskas, deputy director of Lithuania’s anti-corruption watchdog, the Special Investigation Service (STT), told LRT. “We recommend that the STT be included in the evaluations.”
According to Ivoškis from the Defence Ministry, an anti-corruption unit within the military – similar to the one working within the Defence Ministry – will start operating later this year.
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