János Lázár, the minister of construction and transport, is proposing an amendment to the law on public procurement to ensure that contractors that cause damage through non-compliance in road or railway construction projects could be excluded from public procurement in future, according to a Facebook entry he posted on Monday.
“This cannot go on! If we cannot protect the interests of Hungarian people using nice words, we will do so through legal changes,” Lázár said in his post. Under the amendment, public procurement procedures under way would also be reviewed, the minister said.
Lázár noted that Austrian construction company Strabag has recently charged 50 billion forints (EUR 129m) for designing and building a 10km motorway section in northern Hungary. Soon after its inauguration, however, the road caved in and was life-threatening. The company asked for 10 months for repairs but “the ten months have passed, the job has not been done and the road continues to be unusable,” Lázár said.
“Rather than making an apology … the company has taken up an argument with the government … while they cannot answer the simple question when the motorway will be fixed at last.” “If an electrician or bricklayer worked like that in your house, wouldn’t you fire him? And how right you would be,” Lázár said.
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It depends on a) what the contract says, and b) in Hungary, your Political connections.
Anyone recal the Elios case (Elios Innovatív Zrt)? Street lighting public procurement?
EU funds were used for large-scale public contracts, many awarded to a company run by our very own Mr. Tiborcz (of Mr. Orbáns son-in-law fame). The tender process lacked competition, leading to higher costs and questionable assumptions.
OLAF, the EU fraud watchdog, concluded in its investigation that the contracts exhibited serious irregularities and conflict of interest: e.g., tenders designed to favour Elios, price levels above market, lack of competition. Our Politicians decided not to act, and actually ended up funding the contracts with “Hungarian Families!” taxpayer money to make the EU fraud element go away…