State Audit Office to investigate local councils, cbank over brokerage scandal
Budapest, May 14 (MTI) – The State Audit Office (ASZ) has been asked by the government to investigate local councils implicated in recent brokerage scandals, the head of ASZ said in an interview to weekly Heti Valasz.
ASZ will also investigate the banking regulator’s role in the events leading up to the scandal, Laszlo Domokos said. Results from these probes are however only expected next year, he added.
The financial watchdog PSZAF had been under supervision of the finance ministry until 2010 and only became independent from 2013 when it was merged into the central bank, Domokos told the paper. The central bank was quick to notice discrepancies at financial service providers and it is unfair to blame the bank in the scandal, he insisted.
On another subject, Domokos said audits at 30 Hungarian universities have resulted in 40 complaints filed and a dozen investigations launched. Universities are unable to account for some 100 billion forints in European Union funding, which Hungary may have to pay back, he said, adding that arts faculties have been especially notorious for irregular book-keeping.
