Integrity Authority files criminal complaint over suspected budget fraud
Hungary’s Integrity Authority has filed criminal complaints against two companies over a suspected misuse of European Union funds worth a combined 180 million forints (EUR 447,000), the authority said on Monday.
Hungary’s Integrity Authority files complaint
One of the companies received a grant of 130 million forints in EU funding to be used for a project “the feasibility of which was questionable”, the authority said. They explained that the company — an accounting firm by its website and wellness provider by the business register — had applied for support to a project aimed at developing portable equipment to neutralise hazard waste, then changed the aim of the project to producing an “innovative vegetable based yogurt”. The recipient company then contracted the implementation of the project to another business, while “deposited several tonnes of raw material requiring special storage in an apartment on the 3rd floor of a block of flats.”
The other company, an IT firm, was awarded 50 million forints in EU funds for a project aimed at developing a gas furnace. The company then changed the scope of the project to developing an “innovating milk powder with prebiotics”. Similarly to the first case, this company also contracted all related activities of research and development to another business, the authority said.
In both cases the authority proposed that the suspected perpetrators should be obliged to repay the grant amounts in full.
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