NATO's procurement agency under investigation for alleged corruption linked to military contracts

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BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Thursday that the organization’s procurement agency is cooperating with police investigating corruption and fraud allegations involving the purchase of military equipment.

The NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) helps the 32 members of the world’s biggest security alliance and their partners to buy defense equipment and other security systems and support. NATO as an organization does not own any weapons.

The European Union’s criminal justice agency, Eurojust, said Thursday that it had provided support for a cross-border investigation into alleged corruption involving current and former NSPA employees. The investigation stretches to Spain and Luxembourg, where the NSPA is based.

Rutte said that the NATO agency is “working very closely with all the relevant authorities, and obviously we will continue doing that. We want to get to the root of this.” He spoke in Turkey where he was chairing a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

Belgian prosecutors said Wednesday that two suspects in the western region of Flanders had been taken in for questioning over the allegations. One was arrested, the other released. No names or details about them were provided.

They said that the probe is focusing on possible “irregularities” in the awarding of contracts to defense companies to buy military equipment like ammunition and drones, which have become a decisive factor in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The prosecutors suspect that agency employees might have given confidential information to the companies to help them win contracts, and that money may have been laundered through consultancy firms set up for the purpose.

In a related case, Dutch prosecutors announced earlier this week that they had arrested a 58-year-old man from Rotterdam on corruption charges. The prosecution service did not release his name in line with their privacy rules, but said he was a former Dutch defense ministry civil servant who “was responsible for international purchase contracts.”

In a statement, prosecutors said the man is “suspected of having taken bribes in 2023 regarding the awarding of purchase contracts, together with others partly outside the Netherlands.” Two other suspects, who were not civil servants, were also arrested, the statement said. It did not provide further details.

The suspects were appearing Thursday before an investigative judge in the Netherlands.

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Mike Corder contributed to this story from The Hague, Netherlands.