Corruption in Hungary keeps increasing
In the middle of a global pandemic, Hungary has some internal challenges to overcome as well. Countries of the Eastern European region have managed to work to get corruption under control in the past 10 years while Hungary lags behind.
We have recently reported about the government’s management of coronavirus data and the overall lack of information the country provides; meanwhile, there is another aspect the government should work on in order to improve.
10 countries joined the European Union in 2004, Hungary being one of them. Belonging to a cooperation like this comes with certain rules to follow and criteria to fulfil. One of these is decreasing the level of corruption in member states. Most of these 10 countries, like Slovakia, Poland, or Estonia, are doing a great job; meanwhile, Hungary decided to take a slightly different road in 2010.
“The political program of Hungary became not decreasing the level of corruption but the creation of the System of National Cooperation,”
writes István János Tóth, director of the Corruption Research Centre Budapest in his article posted on G7. He referred to an analytic work currently in progress.
Transparency International’s corruption perception index shows that in the past 11 years, apart from Hungary, all countries examined have managed to work on their position compared to Austria, meaning that they all got closer to Hungary’s neighbouring country. The level of perceived corruption has definitely decreased in the other three countries of the Visegrád Four and in Estonia, for instance. Hungary could have made a great recovery, as the country was already at the bottom of the list in 2010, the furthest from the Austrian level, writes hvg.hu.
Apart from the perception of corruption, there are other indicators to find out a country’s tendency for corruption in certain economic sectors. One of these indicators is public procurements, which can shed light on the higher risk or tendency for corruption. It is fairly easy to calculate; we just need to look up all public procurements announced during a given year and check how many of them had more than three contenders trying to win the offer.
In the case of Hungary, the examined period between 2006-2019 was divided into two parts in order to further depict the effect of the System of National Cooperation. Data of the first phase between 2006-2010 was compared to numbers between 2011-2019. Estonia produced the best result: already during the first phase, the country managed to reach 47% of the Austrian level, only to skyrocket in the second period and make its corruption control stronger than that of Austria.
Almost all the countries in the region improved their situation compared to the first phase. It is only Hungary that distances itself from the Austrian standard.
Corruption control used to be 41% of the reference point during the first period, while between 2011-2019, it dropped to 37%. Even Romania has surpassed Hungary in this respect.
During the past 10 years, compared to the level of Austria, corruption has increased in Hungary, instead of decreasing.
On the other hand, countries such as Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Poland, and Estonia are the perfect examples of how to achieve a visible result in decreasing corruption in the course of a relatively short period of 10 years.
Read alsoCorruption in Hungary keeps increasing
Source: G7
I feel sad for Hungary and the Hungarians. By turning to the East for aid and business investments and by leaving the EPP, Fidesz thinks it’s in control but their corruption, naivety and extreme right views have resulted in this country now being owned by China and Russia. People criticise Brussels, well that’s nothing compared to what will come …….. This hasn’t been a Christian country for a long time …..
The corrupted hypocrites in power have already sold the country to the Chinese, Russians and Muslims meanwhile pretending to protect Christian values and Hungarian culture within the country and the prosecuted Christians across the world!
Just remember a couple of weeks ago the king of Orbánistan sided with Azerbaijan to slaughter Armenian Christians to ensure future fat contracts with the Azeri Muslims to sell them more of Hungary!!! Just an example out of thousands!
WOW ???
Is this a copycat game of – Follow the Leader.
The true picture and stories are unraveling and by time of the National Elections in 1922 – who knows what additional information there will be for ALL to digest and make there voting preference.
The power of the Peoples VOTE.
As long as the same gang remains in power, things will only get worse and worse.
And, mind you, it is not just because it is Orbán. By now it is obvious that I am not a fan of his, and I do firmly believe that he, his ministers and and his oligarch friends surely have a special talent for making Hungary more corrupt, illiberal, anti democratic, and for leading the country to a gloomy future; however that also happens because there are people, way too many, who vote for him. And when you keep the same person in charge for 11 years, that the res publica becomes res privata is almost unavoidable…. And when the country in question is one whose democracy is still very young and very weak, such danger is much bigger.
I don’t know what these outsiders know about Hungary or perhaps they have been irreversibly brainwashed by all these pre-election lies.
I am a Hungarian citizen, I live here.
Permit me to correct you.
We have joined the EU for trade.
The EU has changed its policies and politics dramatically since we joined.
We got the Sputnik V in desperation as our people were dying.
There is no law against trying to save the lives of your people. As you all know we haven’t received enough vaccines, nor have many of the other EU countries.
Further more half of the EU countries wanted to have the vaccines from the east but in FEAR OF BIG BROTHER OR MORE TO THE POINT BIG SISTER they didn’t dare.
What is wrong with you people??? WAKE UP BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE.
Interestingly, some of the EU countries have received considerably more vaccines to the percentage of the population than others.
Take Malta for example, how come??
It just proves that some are” more equal than others”.
It is all a dirty, underhanded excuse to attack the existing government.
May I remind you that ALL OF EUROPE IS USING GAS COMING FROM THE EAST.
I am 82 years old. Trust me, I have seen a lot but I have never seen this sort of uncontrolled, no holds barred grab for power ever since the dark times of the communist regime.
Neighbouring Romania uses it’s own gas. They give some to Hungary too.
82 years wasted, poor man. You understand nothing, and as someone else said you are betting on the wrong horse. Again!
Perhaps “TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL” should examine ‘corruption’ within the European Commission (E.C.) and E.U. bureaucracy based in Brussels.
For the unaware, here are just TWO examples of RECENT ‘perceived corruption’ in those organisations :
1. The REFUSAL by President (‘LYIN’) Leyen to release contracts signed between the E.C. and pharmaceutical companies (supposedly) supplying E.U. countries with vaccines against COVID-19.
What is there to HIDE, dearest Ursula ? The E.C.’s TOTAL INCOMPETENCE is well-known but all E.U. citizens now suspect CORRUPTION on a GRAND SCALE (in fact, the E.C. could teach Hungary’s Government a great deal in this area of human endeavour). CONFESS !
2. The PROVEN FACT that one E.U. country – specifically Malta – is so far ahead of others in the block when it comes to vaccinating its population on a percentage basis. Our beloved E.C. wants ‘total equality’ when it comes to such statistics. Obviously the Hungarian Government has shown Brussels its ‘middle finger’ by utilising Chinese and Russian vaccines, but Malta does not use such ‘non-E.M.A.-approved’ methods. Which leads to the inevitable question : which CORRUPT E.U. official(s) ensured that Malta received more vaccines than its ‘fair share’ ? DON’T EXPECT AN ANSWER BEFORE 2100 !
Going back in time, one can uncover an ENORMOUS AMOUNT of other such examples of ‘perceived corruption’ but E.U. bureaucrats being the rodents they are will quickly try to ‘hide the evidence’.
As an aside, the commentator ‘David’ needs to attend primary school and (re)learn geography :
Romania (not located to the West, South or North of Hungary but – you guessed it – the EAST !)
is ‘giving’ Hungary back its OWN gas (thanks to dismemberment of Hungary in 1919 insisted by the French). Furthermore, you PATHETIC LITTLE MAN, never insult old people (men or women) – they have more knowledge than will EVER be accumulated in a lifetime of YOUR miserable existence.