LMP: Orban broke promise on public procurement law

Budapest, September 21 (MTI) – Prime Minister Viktor Orban has broken his promise since parliament is about to pass a public procurement law proposed by the ruling parties that enables concealed links between bidders and those inviting bids, the green opposition LMP said on Monday.

Orban promised in parliament earlier this year that the ruling Fidesz would support excluding the possibility of overlapping interests in preparing, evaluating and winning bids in public procurement procedures, LMP co-leader and group leader Andras Schiffer told a press conference.

Orban made his promise in connection with a winning public procurement contract that involved Elios, a company co-owned by his son-in-law.

Schiffer said the bill to be passed by parliament on Tuesday failed to address this problem. LMP proposed to exclude from public procurements companies whose members included persons closely associated with the government in the past three years. However, the governing parties rejected to incorporate these conflict-of-interest rules into the bill, he added.

Fidesz still does not want to fully exclude off-shore companies, since companies with up to 25 percent off-shore ownership will be allowed to submit bids, he said.

LMP has proposed increasing the transparency of public procurements by making all bids available online after the submission deadline, he added.

Photo: MTI

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters