The Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken (Flemish nationalist) has ordered an internal audit of the recent procurement of drones and counter-drones. Mr Francken announced that an audit will be carried out on Friday morning ahead of a meeting of the Federal Cabinet.
The Defence Minister told journalist that “I will ask the Federal Internal Audit Service to carry out an audit of the procurement process. That will be no problem. It’s about transparency.”
Mr Francken then proceeded to make a dig at the VRT. It was in Wednesday’s edition of VRT News investigative documentary programme Pano that questions were first raised about the Defence Ministry’s procurement of drones and counter-drones and the string of drone sightings towards the end of last year. Mr Francken said that he had refused to cooperate with and contribute to the Pano documentary due to “the hostile attitude of the journalists towards my spokespeople. I will not cooperate if there is no trust in my intent to provide transparency”.