Attack on budget: the €309 mln. LUXEOSys military satellite project shows cracks under audition

The results of a government audition of the LUXEOSys military satellite were released this week. The project, then budgeted at €170 million, was approved by the Luxembourg Parliament back in 2018. However, it’s asked for and received an additional €139 million more in December 2020. Thus the initial price has bloated by a staggering 82% and has somewhat bitten into the country’s budget.

The auditors’ report claims that even the planning stage of the project was not without mistakes. For example, the control center for the satellite will supposedly be situated in Herrenberg. However, the Ministry of Defence made no effort to calculate whether that is even feasible.

More problems arose when the project was discussed in the Parliament. The government council did not disclose the full details of the satellite to the deputies. Confidentiality was cited as the main reason. So the Parliament was effectively discussing the project without knowing its full scope or costs.

The Ministry of Defence, however, knew from the very start that €139 million won’t be enough. And it knowingly hid this information from the government.

Back in 2018 the satellite project was approved by the entire Parliament. The left-winged deputies were the only ones against it. In 2020, however, the additional funding raised a wave of public resonance. Which prompted the government to start this recent audition.

And now the results are in. The auditors strongly recommend to regularly put Ministry of Defence’s big investments under scrutiny. A budgetary control commission will keep an eye on the military satellite progress from now on.