December 18, 2025, 1:34 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
The Federal Audit Office has leveled serious accusations against the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF). For a total of 35 million euros, the ministry procured more than 17,000 “secure” smartphones for encrypted communication in the customs administration. However, the devices were not usable for this purpose.
No Approval for Secure Communication
Although the smartphones were approved by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) and were supposed to be suitable for the confidentiality level “Classified – For Official Use Only” (VS-NfD), the ITZBund network to which the devices were connected did not have this approval at the time of purchase between 2021 and 2022. This approval was only granted in June 2025—by which time the General Customs Directorate had already withdrawn most of the devices from circulation in 2024.
During the time the smartphones were in use, customs were not allowed to process or send any classified information with the new smartphones. Therefore, the devices could not fulfill their intended purpose.
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Customs Employees Continued Using Their Own Smartphones
Even for regular daily operations, the smartphones were hardly usable according to the Federal Audit Office report. Essential basic functions such as calendar, phone directory, email retrieval, or image transmission were not available. Additionally, there was an unusually high energy consumption that significantly reduced battery life.
Many employees, therefore, decided to continue using their old, insecure mobile phones. The Audit Office points out that these issues would have been apparent with thorough testing before procurement. The lack of approval for the IT infrastructure is also a fundamental planning error that the responsible parties should have considered.
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Unclear Demand and Lack of Preparation
The Audit Office also criticizes the demand planning. Although the General Customs Directorate developed concepts, it did not conduct a thorough assessment of the actual demand. The strategy prescribed by the BMF to generally allow mobile communication only in encrypted form does not replace a realistic analysis.
The incident reveals fundamental problems in the technical modernization of federal agencies. High security requirements, complex infrastructures, and insufficiently tested solutions can quickly lead to costly missteps. The Audit Office, therefore, calls for better preparation of large procurement projects in the future and for new technology to be tested realistically before rollout.