At the start of Feburary, the Ministry of Economy Affairs presented its personalized state proposal which is estimated to cost €200 million.

However, much of the plan was based on a previous study by Nortal. The majority owner of the company, Priit Alamäe, is a founding member of Eesti 200 and its biggest donor.

"These are not Nortal's ideas, but as has already been said, we've talked to dozens and dozens of smart people all over the world," said Alamäe.

Riisalo also sees nothing wrong with Nortal's footprint in the proposal. He said companies have been sufficiently consulted.

"It is also inevitable that some companies are smaller, some larger. Those that are bigger have more experience, they have more human resources to do community work. /.../ And I have absolutely no shame in saying that if we talk about developing the digital state and we do not consult with Estonia's leading companies in this field, which undoubtedly includes Nortal, then we are not doing our job properly," said Riisalo.

Miriam Tõnismägi, Transparency International Estonia CEO, said this may be unethical policy-making as not all interested parties have been included in the preparation phase. But she said it is too early to talk about corruption.

"The result of this, in the worst case, could lead to a situation where public money is not being used optimally, a common resource of all of us, being channeled perhaps according to somebody's private interests, business interests," said Tõnismägi.

"This is simply not the way things work in a strong democratic state based on the rule of law," she added.

Alamäe said the vision and project have been confused.

"There is sometimes a confusion between vision and project here. /.../ There will be dozens and dozens of projects afterwards. There will be a separate call for tenders for each project, where everyone can compete. In my opinion, the fact that you are involved in the 'vision' process should not give you any advantage over how a particular section of road or project is subsequently carried out," said Alamäe.

Riisalo said: "I have to admit that I do not see anything unethical there /.../ Unfortunately I do not have time to go into all that. /.../ Who is involved in it at all, specific names or companies, I found out when the paper was in its final stages."

Minister of Finance Mart Võrklaev (Reform) said things do not look good.

"Reading this story this morning and reading these documents, you have to admit that it does not look good. My concern is first and foremost that our e-government is quite strong. /.../ Perhaps we should not now jeopardize the whole development of our e-governance and the following activities by such moves, where justified or unjustified doubts arise," he told "Aktuaalne kaamera".

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