Here are the 10 most outrageous things Matolcsy’s foundations have spent money on

The foundations that were created by the Hungarian National Bank (MNB), and cost 260 billion HUF, have recently revealed what they have the money on. There are six foundations, approximately 1 000 items, but 24.hu selected the top 10 most outrageous things.

The six foundations are the Pallas Athéné Domus Animae (PADA) foundation, the Pallas Athéné Domus Scientiae foundation (PADS), the Pallas Athéné Geopolitical foundation (PAGEO), the Pallas Athéné Domus Mentis foundation (PADM), the Pallas Athéné Domus Innovationis foundation (PADI), and the Pallas Athéné Domus Concordiae foundation (PADC).

PADA signed a contract with ART-KELIM Békésszentandrási Szőnyegszövő és Kereskedelmi Ltd. (seems a carpet manufacturing company) to make carpets for 280,000 HUF/m². PADA, PADSP, and PAGEAO ordered 11 office chairs and 60 conference chairs from Made in Heiszler Ltd. for 5,668,000 HUF. PADA also had a contract with PM Viktor Orbán’s son-in-law István Tiborcz, whose company, Elios, provided floodlight to the façade of a building on Csónak Street. It cost 5,200,000 HUF.

An unnamed private individual receives 1 million HUF/month since 2014 for making extensive geopolitical analysis and reports about the border region of Europe and Asia.

The Frank Digital Communication Consulting Services Ltd. received 6,271,500 HUF from PAGEO for making the illustration and the layout of the book Magyarok a világ élvonalában (Hungarians at the forefront).

PADMA also paid for a private individual for developing the Kecskemét College’s Faculty of Economic Sciences, helping it become a university, and contributing to its equipment needs. A total of 173,000,000 HUF was paid to the individual.

Another individual received 1,300,000 HUF three times from PAGEO for participating in a study trip in Ruanda to present the political contribution of women and the Singapore model of economic development.

Yet another individual received 3,000,000 HUF from PAGEO for studying the consequences of the Tanzanian elections on national politics in East Africa. PAGEO also supported the field-work that was done in Botswana and Namibia by paying 2,000,000 HUF.

The publishing company Kairosz received 122,000,000 HUF from the foundations; 70,000,000 for publishing and translating the book Sakk és póker (Chess and poker). The book was published under Helga Wiedermann’s name, who was Matolcsy’s chief of staff in the Ministry of Economy. The book records the ministers’ so called economic war of independence. The Ukrainian, Romanian, Czech, and Polish translation cost 40,000,000 HUF.

The foundations of the Hungarian National Bank (MNB) were ordered by the Constitutional Court of Hungary to make every purchase over 5 million HUF that was made before 31 March 2016 public.

The New Wave groups of companies have been constantly supported by the foundations; New Wave owns Vs.hu and bought Origo from Telekom last year. New Wave Production, New Wave Media, and We Love Publishing (which owns We Love Budapest and We Love Balaton) has received 642,255,760 HUF from the different foundations.

Photo: MTI

Copy editor: bm

Source: 24.hu