Socialists call on Orbán cabinet to ‘clarify’ procurements during pandemic

The Socialist Party has called on the government to clarify the status of health-care-related procurements during the novel coronavirus epidemic, a party lawmaker said on Friday.

Ildikó Borbély Bangó told an online press conference that the foreign ministry had ordered the purchase of “outrageously priced” ventilators by international comparison, and one of the companies used had since been embroiled in a scandal in Slovenia.

The party will make a written query to Miklós Kásler, the minister of human resources, and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó regarding the decision-making process for procuring the ventilators, the mediators employed, as well as the number of machines actually delivered to hospitals, Bango said.

She called on the ruling parties to support the establishment of a parliamentary committee to review the outcomes of government measures during the epidemic.

The committee, the Socialist politician added, would be an appropriate forum for making preparations for a potential second wave of the novel coronavirus with a view to avoiding the scenario of a large number of hospital infections.

“Half of all fatalities” were due to infections picked up in hospitals, she said.

The ruling Fidesz party said in response that

the left-wing opposition parties “can’t even set aside their hatred or their power interests in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic, and they’re doing everything to prevent protection measures.”

The Fidesz statement said the left wing had failed to vote for legislation needed for the country to protect itself from the virus and had rejected the coronavirus law which enabled the government to take swift decisions amid the emergency situation before instituting regulations for a state of medical preparedness. The statement called this “a disgrace”.

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