Questions raised in the media sparked the audit request; things have to be checked over and changes made to procedures if shortcomings are revealed in order to avoid the repitition of mistakes in the future, Michal told BNS on Monday.

TS Laevad has maintained that all providers of services are selected y means of a competition and the failure to send an invitation to one supplier was a regrettable technical mistake which was later corrected. Besides, the company added, not all fuel suppliers in Estonia offer ship fuel.

Over the weekend, Estonian daily Delfi reported that TS Laevad, a subsidiary of the state-owned Port of Tallinn that is about to begin serving a ten-year contract for operating subsidized ferry services between the mainland and Western Estonia's largest islands next month, shunned several major Estonian fuel trading companies in its tender.

Kaido Padar, manager at TS Laevad, told the news portal that he knew nothing of companies such as Orlen and Mark Oil. Speaking of a third potential supplier, Jetoil, Padar stated that TS Laevad knew of the company but forgot to send them tender documents in time.

Alexela Oil was chosen to supply up to 6 million liters of diesel to TS Laevad during a period of 12 months for an estimated total cost of approximately 5-6 million euros.