The Slovak Spectator wrote about four Hungarian firms connected to István Tiborcz, son-in-law of PM Orbán, winning hundreds of thousands of EUR on suspicious lighting tenders of local municipalities. Furthermore, Tiborcz’s former ‘flagship’ in Hungary, Elios, is investigated by OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office.
OLAF investigated, Hungarian authorities sit out
According to a leaked report from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the recipe for winning many public tenders for modernisation of public lighting in Hungary was simple. In fact, the money was provided by the EU, and the Hungarian municipalities prescribed strict criteria which were only met by Tiborcz’s firm, Elios. Thus, it happened many times that his enterprise was the only applying company.
However, investigative journalists from direkt36.hu found that Elios’ lights were overpriced. Furthermore, its net profit was 14 pc of the total amount of contracts while its competitors earned only 5 pc. Moreover, some Hungarian municipalities complained later that the new Elios lighting was poor and turned out worse than the previous ones. Based on these data, OLAF started an investigation in 2014, and it found that at least in 17 cases,
“Elios had directly organized fraud for procurement.”
Thus, OLAF recommended the Hungarian authorities’ criminal proceedings, which are still ongoing – according to The Slovak Spectator. However, because of the embarrassing scandal, Tiborcz sold his share in Elios in 2015 while its daughter companies started to search for new fields for business, for example, in Serbia, and in Slovakia.
Some municipalities are already fined in Slovakia
When Minister for Economy, Pavol Pavlis of Smer called for the modernisation of public lighting for municipalities, Elios’ daughter companies toed the line. The Slovak Spectator mentions four of these companies: Elios Slovakia, Infralux, GREP Slovakia and, E-E-E LED Lighting.
In fact, Infralux won public lighting tenders in 2015 September in seven villages near Besztercebánya (Banská Bystrica) for 850 thousand EUR even though it was
founded only one month before the call for tenders.
Grep Slovakia won two tenders, the first for 240 thousand EUR while the second for 58,600 EUR.
Like in Hungary, these seven plus two municipalities also requested strict demands and, also, they excluded two firms doing business in lighting for many years in Slovakia. Therefore, the Public Procurement Office (ÚVO) fined them specifically because of
unreasonable requirements restricting competition.
The Slovak Spectator approached the mayors of the municipalities, but they denied any allegations of fraud. ‘What is not suspicious these days? I do not care about such things, I just need lighting’ – said Marian Mazúch, the Mayor of Horhát (Horchot). Imre Farkas, the Mayor of Jóka (Jelka), said that he was not aware of the Grep’s background, but he is
satisfied with their job.
In fact, the four companies connected to Elios are still active and, except for Infralux, they are increasing sales and profits – stated The Slovak Spectator. That website publishes the articles of SME, one of the most widely read mainstream broadsheets in Slovakia.
Featured image: PM Orbán with István Tiborcz.
Source: The Slovak Spectator
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If we can believe the left-wing media in the Netherlands, Viktor Orbán is an evil pariah. Anyone who listens to the recent speech by the Hungarian Prime Minister will get a different picture. Orbán, who recently started his fourth term with an overwhelming election majority, is a statesman. His vision can also give direction to the Netherlands. One of the challenges that Orbán addresses in his speech is underpopulation. Just like the Netherlands, Hungary suffers from a birth rate that eventually leads to the extinction of the population. Orbán’s remedy is the defense of one’s own Christian culture, in which the family occupies a central place. The family has to be placed on a pedestal again: there lies the future of society. Orbán outlines an alternative economic model in his speech. Countries have the right to protect their own markets and sectors, which are of national and strategic importance. The new policy works particularly well: Hungary exports more goods than ever before. Besides the right to defend their own economy, every country also has the right to reject immigration and ‘to defend their own borders’. In addition, every country deserves the right to vote on these most important topics. Orbán: ‘This right must not be denied in the European Union’. Orbán’s view of the future of Europe contrasts strongly with the visionlessness of our Prime Minister Mark Rutte. From him comes the infamous statement ‘Vision is like an elephant that hinders the view’.
Because of Rutte’s lack of vision, for example, the Netherlands still does not have a decent population policy. In Belgium, Italy and Hungary it is the most normal thing in the world that expanding families are helped. In the Netherlands it is taboo. That is disastrous for the survival of our country in the long term. The government wants to help people in many ways become self-employed, because that is the future of the economy. But helping people to start a family is not part of it. On the contrary, families where the women are too much at home with the children to the government’s taste, are saddled with thousands of euros to pay extra taxes. Exactly the opposite of the family-friendly measures that Orbán affects. The Netherlands, like Hungary, feels the existential challenge of the advancing Islam. Orbán does not place a soulless globalist liberalism with Islam, but the Christian culture of Europe. Understandable in the Hungarian context. For centuries, Hungary has fought a battle of life to death against the Islamic imperialists of the Ottoman Empire. Orbán’s attitude towards the European Union is also a world of difference. Where Rutte blindly follows Angela Sauer, who simply sees no alternative to the ‘necessary evil’ of the EU, Orbán outlines a clear plan for the future. No Merkelian alternativlosis for Hungary. The Hungarian model that Orbán proposes in his speech does not have to be limited to Hungary alone. Orbán believes in an alliance of free nations as the new path for Europe. It would be good if the Netherlands would join in!