European Anti-Fraud Office’s (OLAF)

Jobbik turns to OLAF’s head

Gábor Staudt Jobbik MP

Budapest (MTI) – The opposition Jobbik party is turning to the head of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) after the organisation rejected a request by the party to look into circumstances surrounding the peremptory dismissal by Hungary’s public prosecutor of a number of investigations.

Gábor Staudt, the party’s deputy group leader, told MTI on Saturday that Jobbik had originally turned to OLAF in mid-March with a request concerning six cases in which either investigations had been suddenly terminated or no charges had been raised.

According to Staudt, OLAF refused, citing the likely infringement of personal data that disclosure during an investigation would entail.

“They even wrote there was nothing to indicate an overriding public interest in the disclosure of the documents requested,” he said.

The Jobbik politician said that OLAF thereby sent a message to the prosecutors of European Union member states that criminal organisations and suspects could expect their cases to be summarily closed with impunity.

A spokesman for the prosecution service said in a background briefing earlier in the week that, since 2012, OLAF had issued thirty judicial recommendations and had raised four issues with the prosecutor’s office, which accordingly ordered investigations into all cases except when a case was already under way.

Photo: Balázs Béli

Transparency International Hungary holds intl conference on fighting corruption

Budapest, May 5 (MTI) – Transparency International Hungary organised an international conference on fighting corruption in Budapest on Friday.

TI Hungary CEO József Péter Martin said European Union member states should play leading roles in protecting the EU’s financial interests, but authorities are often slow to handle corruption cases and are not effective enough in cracking down on abuses of EU funds.

Citing a report by Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF, Martin said irregularities surrounding EU finances had cost the bloc 3.2 billion euros in 2015. Hungary has received large amounts of EU funds over the past years, with 90 percent of public investment projects financed from EU money, he said, stressing the importance of the proper handling of EU funds.

He said cooperation between OLAF and Hungary “could be better”, adding that Hungarian authorities were not particularly effective at tackling corruption.

He said the establishment of a European prosecutor would go a long way toward increasing the effectiveness of the fight against corruption, but so far only 16 member states have declared their support for it.

Gábor Zupkó, head of the European Commission’s representation in Budapest, called corruption “one of the biggest societal challenges of our time” which harms both member states and the EU as a whole, while holding back economic growth and undermining trust in legitimate institutions. Corruption can be tackled with the passage of effective laws, but the real key to solving the problem is their implementation, he said.

OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler said the most worrying and dangerous trends concerning corruption were cross-border corruption and the fact that certain democracies were being governed in a way that made graft an integral part of how the country is run.

Concerning Hungary, Kessler urged greater transparency of the budget, adding that corruption ruined economic performance and undermines public trust.

He argued for the establishment of a European prosecutor, even if it would take over some of the responsibilities of OLAF.

The ruling Fidesz party said in a statement that Transparency International was part and parcel of the “corruption of [US financier] George Soros”.

“The Soros-funded organisation, his people in the Brussels commission and the opposition parties sat down together today … to put pressure on the Hungarian government,” the statement said. “They are using every topic and every means to put pressure on the Hungarian migration policy.” Fidesz finds it “outrageous” that Transparency speaks about transparency, and organises a conference on corruption, while refusing to answer a journalist’s question about how much foreign money it receives and the exact extent to which it is supported by George Soros, the statement added.

Jobbik to request OLAF reports on cases closed by Hungary

bkk-m2-metro-budapest alstom

Budapest (MTI) – Opposition Jobbik party will request reports from Europe’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) on six cases that had earlier been closed by Hungarian authorities without any charges being filed, the party’s deputy group leader said on Sunday.

Gábor Staudt told a press conference that in response to a question submitted earlier to the chief public prosecutor by Jobbik, Peter Polt had cited six reports compiled by OLAF between 2012 and 2016 about cases that had already been investigated by Hungarian authorities. Staudt said the chief prosecutor had not elaborated on the cases the reports concerned.

Staudt added that under EU law, OLAF had a duty to release the reports, given that no criminal proceedings had been launched in any of the cases.

Jobbik intends to release the reports to the public, he added.

Ruling Fidesz requests prosecutor’s report on investigations into metro irregularities

Daily News Hungary

Budapest, March 19 (MTI) – Ruling Fidesz will file a written request for a report from the chief prosecutor on the investigations regarding the irregularities around the construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line, Fidesz MP László Kucsak told a press conference on Sunday.

The European Commission’s European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) published a report on January 12 unravelling serious irregularities around the construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line, Kucsak noted. All but one of the irregularities found were from between 2005-2008, and the scope of the damage is such “that it would have been impossible to bring about without systematic corruption”. The case is obviously connected to the [then governing] Socialists and Liberals, he said.

The total sum concerned in the case “of possible fraud or even theft”, Kucsak said, is 167 billion forints (EUR 540m). The EU could be entitled to a reimbursement of up to 59 billion forints (EUR 191m), he said.

Former Socialist Prime Minister Medgyessy denies responsibility in metro 4 case

Budapest, March 14 (MTI) – Former Socialist Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy has denied responsibility in the corruption scandal around the construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line.
    Medgyessy told a hearing of parliament’s economic committee dealing with the report by Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF on the metro construction project that the decisions in connection with the project had been made and the tenders for it had been called between 2005 and 2006, after he had resigned as prime minister in September 2004.

The former premier also said he had not held any position in a consultancy firm linked to the project at that point.

Medgyessy said the Hungarian government had to protect its interests in the case in Brussels so that it could minimise the amount of money it has to pay back to the European Commission. The best-case scenario would be if Hungary did not have to make any repayment, he said.

Medgyessy added that he did not believe that former Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky was implicated in the corruption case.

He said he was unable to determine whether there was indeed corruption involved in the metro construction project, adding that this would have to be uncovered by the prosecution dealing with the case.

Medgyessy said it was an exaggeration to say that 167 billion forints (EUR 533.8m) had “vanished”, adding that OLAF had not stated this either. The anti-fraud office has merely said that the contracts in connection with which it had uncovered irregularities were worth a total of 167 billion forints, the former prime minister added.

Fidesz: Former Budapest officials expected to appear before parliament’s economic committee over OLAF report

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Budapest, February 27 (MTI) – Former senior officials of Budapest are expected to appear before parliament’s economic committee on Tuesday in connection with the metro 4 construction project, “the largest corruption scandal of all time”, ruling Fidesz said.

Former deputy mayors Csaba Horváth and Miklós Hagyó, of the opposition Socialists, and fomer head of the Socialist group in the Budapest general assembly Erzsébet Gy Németh, currently an opposition Democratic Coalition politician, have been invited, the party said in a statement on Monday.

The European Union audit office OLAF said in a report that a third of the metro 4 construction was affected by fraud and Hungary is expected to repay 59 billion forints (EUR 190m) to Brussels. Fidesz said that the responsibility clearly lies with the governments of Péter Medgyessy, Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai, and as well as the Socialist-Free Democrats city management under Mayor Gábor Demszky. The report suggests that prohibited party financing could have been committed and part of the money for the metro construction project could have ended up in Socialist coffers, Fidesz added.

The committe first attempted to hear the former prime ministers and the former Budapest mayor on February 15 but they did not turn up for the hearing.

Hungary Trends – The week in business and finance

Daily News Hungary

Budapest (MTI) – See below MTI’s main business and financial news from the previous week:

HUNGARY Q4 GDP GROWTH REACHES 1.6 PC

Hungary’s GDP grew by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter, a first reading of data published by the Central Statistical Office (KSH) shows. GDP was up by 2.0 percent for the full year. Hungary’s government expected GDP growth to reach 2.1 percent in 2016.

HUNGARY CPI PICKS UP TO 2.3 PC IN JAN

Consumer prices in Hungary rose by 2.3 percent year-on-year in January, accelerating from a 1.8 percent increase in December, KSH said. Twelve-month CPI surpassed 2 percent for the first time since May 2013, accelerating mainly on a steep rise of vehicle fuel prices which rose by 15.2 percent.

 

HUNGARY STATE DEBT REACHES 73.9 PC OF GDP AT THE END OF 2016

Hungary’s state debt, calculated according to Maastricht rules, stood at 73.9 percent of GDP at the end of December, down from 74.3 percent of GDP at the end of September, the National Bank of Hungary said concerning Hungary’s financial accounts. In nominal terms, state debt reached 25,922 billion forints in Q4 2016.

NBH MULLS STEPS TO LOWER COST OF HOME LOANS

The National Bank of Hungary is drafting measures that would make it easier to compare lending products and switch banks as well as support the expansion of digital banking services, all with the aim of reducing the cost of borrowing, deputy governor Márton Nagy said in an interview.

STATE SUSPENDS HUF 20BN IN METRO 4 FUNDING PENDING OLAF REPORT OUTCOME

The state of Hungary is suspending 20 billion forints in funding to Budapest allocated for the metro 4 project because of alleged misappropriation uncovered in a report by the European Anti-fraud Office (OLAF), government office chief János Lázár said on public radio. Read more news about METRO 4 FRAUD HERE.

AUTOMOTIVE SECTOR OUTPUT DROPS ALMOST 7 PC IN DECEMBER

Output of Hungary’s automotive sector, a key driver of industry in the country, fell by 6.9 percent year-on-year in December, a detailed reading of data released by KSH shows. Headline industrial output was down by 0.5 percent.

GOVT TO SPEND HUF 120 BN ON RAISING WAGES AT STATE-OWNED COMPANIES

The government will allocate 44 billion forints in 2017 to raise pay at state-owned companies to be followed by a 48 billion forints allocation next year and 28.5 billion forints in 2019, state secretary of the national development ministry Janos Fonagy said. Salaries for 143,000 employees at 230 state-owned companies will gradually be raised by 30 percent over the three years. Read more HERE.

EC RAISES GDP GROWTH FORECAST FOR HUNGARY

Hungary’s real-term GDP growth is expected to be 3.5 percent this year, the European Commission said in its 2017 winter economic forecast, in an upward revision from the 2.6 percent growth predicted in its earlier November forecast.

EC LAUNCHES ONE INFRINGEMENT PROCEDURE AGAINST HUNGARY, STEPS UP ANOTHER

The European Commission launched an infringement procedure against Hungary regarding legislation on retail food sales and stepped up another infringement procedure on measures dealing with environmental noise. Read more HERE.

CONSTRUCTION SECTOR OUTPUT CONTINUES TO FALL IN DECEMBER

Hungary’s construction sector output fell by 14.9 percent year-on-year in December 2016, now falling for the twelfth month in a row, KSH said. The December decrease in output was almost unchanged from the 14.7 percent year-on-year fall in November 2016.

Former leaders stay away from parliament hearing into alleged Metro 4 project graft

Budapest, February 15 (MTI) – Péter Medgyessy, Ferenc Gyurcsány, and Gordon Bajnai, Hungary’s prime ministers before 2010, and former Budapest Mayor Gábor Demszky did not turn up to Wednesday’s session of parliament’s economic committee which is investigating alleged corruption connected with construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line completed in 2014.

Medgyessy, who is abroad, said he would answer questions in March, while Gyurcsány and Demszky declined the invitation. Bajnai did not respond to the invitation, Erik Bánki, Fidesz head of the committee said.

For its next session, the body has invited former deputy mayor Csaba Horváth, former head of the Socialist group in the municipal council.

Demszky said recently that European anti-fraud OLAF’s report on the alleged graft was “one-sided and unfounded”. He said OLAF had based its report on a State Audit Office report dating back to 2010. He blamed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for influencing the audit office with a view to ensuring allegations of criminal activity.

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Fidesz: Those named in OLAF report should clear themselves in parlt committee

Budapest (MTI) – Those affected by the European anti-fraud office OLAF report about the alleged fraud case concerning the construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line should turn up at the Wednesday session of Parliament’s economic committee to demonstrate that they have nothing to hide, ruling Fidesz said.

Balázs Hidvéghi, the party’s communications director, noted that former Socialist prime ministers Péter Medgyessy, Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai, as well as the former liberal mayor of Budapest Gábor Demszky, had been invited to the event.

Fidesz hopes that the committee will be able to start “unravelling the greatest corruption scandal of all times”, he told a press briefing on Tuesday.

Government: Metro 4 case ‘textbook example of fraud’

Budapest, February 12 (MTI) – The report by the European Union’s anti-fraud office OLAF identifying corruption surrounding Hungary’s metro 4 construction project shows that the handling of the project was a “textbook example of fraud”, government office chief János Lázár said.

Speaking to public Kossuth Radio in a pre-recorded interview broadcast on Sunday, Lázár said the total cost of the metro project was 430-450 billion forints (EUR 1.4-1.5bn), of which 380 billion had been paid out.

The project is still in its closing phase, as the capital is still receiving government support for it, he said.

The government is due to transfer the final 20 billion forints to Budapest this year, but that transfer is being suspended, Lázár said. Given that criminal activities are suspected in connection with the project, under Hungary’s budget law, the government cannot spend taxpayer money on it until the OLAF investigation of the case is closed and it becomes clear who is legally responsible for what had happened, Lázár said.

He noted that the Prime Minister’s Office has launched an investigation to determine whether the alleged misappropriations also concerned government money contributed to the project.

“It appears that they did,” Lázár said, citing the OLAF report which he said indicated that the “frauds” suspected in the case involved not just the misappropriation of European Union funds but also funds transferred directly from state coffers.

If the suspected irregularities are confirmed, Budapest will have to be asked to repay the misappropriated funds to the government, Lazar said.

He said that “in simple terms” what had happened was that international corporations involved in the project “such as Siemens or Alstom” had “joined forces” with the municipal council leadership at the time, the various technical supervisors and designers and “robbed Brussels and the Hungarian budget”.

He said the reason why the current municipal council leadership was now in “a difficult position due to [former liberal Budapest mayor] Gábor Demszky’s activities” was because the EU was expected to demand that Hungary pay back the misappropriated funds and the Hungarian state can do so as well.

He said the EU would not wait for the case to be wrapped up in the Hungarian justice system before issuing its reimbursement demands, adding that this would have serious financial bearing on the capital.

Lázár added, at the same time, that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had instructed members of the government to provide any assistance they can to the capital in resolving the matter.

On another subject, Lázár praised Hungary’s management of its EU funds, declaring the country the “winner” of the 2014-2020 funding cycle. He said the government would call tenders for all EU funds available for the current funding period by March 31. Of the 9,000 billion forints available, 2,200-2,700 billion forints will be spent on development projects, he said. The government aims to disburse all of the available funds by March 31, 2018, he added.

Fidesz seeks prosecutor’s help in informing public about OLAF metro report

Budapest (MTI) – The ruling Fidesz party has reached out to Péter Polt, the chief prosecutor, requesting his help in informing the public about the details of the case surrounding the construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line.

Fidesz MP László Kucsák told a press conference on Saturday that he had penned a letter to Polt seeking clarification on the details of the report by Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF.

The ruling party specifically wants Polt to clarify whom the report names as persons concerned in the case, who is being investigated and where the funds misappropriated over the course of the project may have ended up.

Kucsák said the OLAF report “clearly indicates” that funds earmarked for the metro project may have been used for illegal party financing, suggesting that a portion of the funds “may have ended up in the Socialist Party’s coffers”.

He said the more was revealed about the metro 4 case, the clearer it became that it was “the greatest corruption scandal of all time”.

Kucsák noted that Fidesz had proposed that Budapest’s city council should set up an ad hoc committee to look into the project and that parliament’s economic committee will also investigate the case.

Jobbik: Both Socialists, Fidesz ‘up to their necks’ in metro scandal

Budapest, February 10 (MTI) – The Socialists, now in opposition, “divided the loot” with the now-ruling Fidesz party in the metro four construction scheme, the opposition Jobbik party said on Friday. “Both are up to their necks,” said Jobbik.

Jobbik lawmaker György Szilágyi told a press conference that both parties connived to steal nearly half of the funding for the metro line’s construction.

The Socialists and Fidesz have also conspired to work out a way to ensure a cover-up so that Hungarian investigators fail to uncover the real state of affairs, the Jobbik lawmaker claimed.

Referring to the procurement of French Alstom trains, Szilágyi insisted the corruption case had links that reached as high as the prime minister.

 

Marcell Tokody, a Jobbik lawmaker in the Budapest assembly, said if the European Commission demanded repayment of 59 billion forints, as recommended in a report of the European anti-fraud office OLAF, then all Hungarians taxpayers would be forced pay because it was unlikely that the people responsible would be identified or their assets seized.

The Budapest city council submitted a complaint concerning the metro four construction scheme back in 2011, he said. Still, the irregularities were revealed only by the British anti-fraud office and OLAF, he added.

Prosecutor holds talks with OLAF chief

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Budapest (MTI) – Hungary’s public prosecution service is cooperating with the European anti-fraud office (OLAF) to pursue crimes that harm the European Union’s financial interests, Péter Polt, the chief prosecutor, assured OLAF head Giovanni Kessler at a meeting in Budapest on Thursday.

Talks focused on ongoing cases and legal measures aimed at making criminal investigations more effective in cases of fraud that hurt the EU’s financial interests, Polt’s office said in a statement.

At the meeting, Kessler said OLAF maintained good relations with Hungarian prosecutors, working in close cooperation on important matters, the statement said.

Kessler said OLAF would continue to rely on Polt’s support in uncovering and launching legal procedures in corruption cases, ensuring that the culprits are brought to justice.

Polt said Hungarian prosecutors had launched criminal investigations in all cases identified by OLAF. In cases where an investigation was ongoing, it has attached OLAF’s related recommendations, he added. So far, charges were brought in five cases, a penalty was binding in one case. Investigations are under way in 23 cases, Polt said.

During the day, Economy Minister Mihály Varga and Justice Minister László Trócsányi also met the OLAF chief to discuss corruption and irregularities surrounding the construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line, the economy and justice ministries said in a joint statement. OLAF’s report shows the effectiveness of the anti-fraud office’s work, they said, adding that as soon as the Hungarian government received OLAF’s report, it raised criminal charges with the public prosecutor on Jan. 19.

Photo: Daily News Hungary

Weekly government press briefing: Metro fraud, abortions, fostered workers and migration

Budapest, February 9 (MTI) – János Lázár, the government office chief, has called Budapest’s metro 4 construction “the gravest corruption case” in the past few decades. The government will propose legislation for restoring restrictions to the free movement of migrants while their asylum applications are assessed, Lázár said.

Metro 4 project ‘worst corruption case’ in recent decades

Lázár told a weekly news briefing that the European Union’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) had reviewed contracts worth a combined 400 billion forints (EUR 1.3bn) in connection with the metro project and found “problems” concerning 272 billion forints. He insisted that 166 billion forints may have been spent illegitimately and that the city would have to refund 59 billion forints to the European Union unless it contested the findings of the OLAF report within 60 days.

Lázár also suggested that the 166 billion forint total contained 77 billion forints from the central budget, which the government could reclaim.

He said the current city management had nothing to do with these contracts and Mayor István Tarlós had made every effort to increase transparency. At the same time, the contracts signed in the era of the previous mayor Gábor Demszky were most likely affected by fraud, mismanagement, abuse of influence and collusion, he insisted. The public prosecutor’s office has started investigations into some of these cases, he said.

Commenting on criticism surrounding the OLAF report, he said the opposition interprets the OLAF report as “the Bible” when it finds ruling Fidesz at fault. However, when the opposition Socialists-Free Democrats are affected by the report, then they describe it as a botched work, he added.

Meanwhile, Lázár said the cabinet had decided to allocate 33.3 billion forints for raising wages of employees of church-run and other non-state-run social institutions and 7.4 billion forints for raising the wages of graduates working in social services. It was also decided that all employees in social services who hold health-related jobs should be paid in line with the wage scale used in the health-care sector, Lazar said.

Government to scale back fostered jobs programme

Lázár said Hungary’s government has decided to downsize the country’s fostered jobs scheme over the next five years, gradually reducing the number of participants from an average of 216,000 to 100,000. The government is allocating 40 billion forints to support the placement of fostered workers into private-sector jobs, he added. He said there were currently 37,000 unfilled jobs for unskilled workers. Jobseekers will be obliged to take any available job within the administrative district they reside in and can participate in the fostered job scheme only if no other jobs are available, Lázár said.

Government support to new gynaecology clinic where abortions are banned

Also, the government is providing 7.8 billion forints in support for setting up a new gynecology clinic in Budapest that will refuse to perform abortions, he said. Doctors at the new clinic established in cooperation by the Bethesda Children’s Hospital and the Budai Irgalmasrendi Hospital will not be allowed to accept tips, Lázár added.

Lázár announced that Hungary will apply to become the host country for the London-based European Banking Authority and the European Medicines Agency when Britain exits the European Union, he said.

Language exam

Commenting on a report by ombudsman László Székely stating that the government decision to require an intermediate-level language exam as a pre-condition for entering higher education had been badly prepared, Lázár disagreed with Székely. The six-year preparatory period for the introduction of this requirement should be sufficient and the government should not withdraw the decision because it is an important step in improving the quality of higher education and language training, he added.

 

Government to restore migrant detention

Asylum seekers in Hungary will be required to remain in shelters during the crisis situation linked to mass migration, Lázár told a regular press briefing.

Containers with spaces for 200-300 people altogether will be set up at the border. Asylum applicants will be expected to stay there and wait for their requests to be assessed. The conditions for court procedures will also be made available at these locations via electronic communications, Lázár added.

Migrants without a permit to stay in Hungary will be stopped at any location in the country, not only in the 8 km zone within the border, he said.

If the migration situation deteriorates, a second fence will be built at the border, he said.

Photo: MTI

Government office starts procedure to reveal irregularities in metro 4 construction

Makó (MTI) – The Prime Minister’s Office has launched a procedure to reveal irregularities suspected in the construction of the city’s fourth metro line, the government office chief said on Tuesday.

János Lázár told the press after a public forum in Makó in southern Hungary that it was the most serious corruption case of the past 27 years. Based on a report by Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF some 166 billion forints (EUR 535m) worth of contracts were affected by fraud in the 430 billion forints investment project. Of the 166 billion forints, the European Union demands that 59 billion forints, which the community had contributed to the project, must be repaid by Hungary, Lázár said

The government must identify how to reclaim the difference in the affected contracts, most of which were financed by Hungary and therefore constituted taxpayers’ money, he added.

OLAF protects the money of EU taxpayers and the government must protect Hungarian taxpayers’ money, Lázár said.

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If the Hungarian investigation reveals similar irregularities as those shown in OLAF’s report, then the government is stipulated by the budget law to reclaim the support granted for the investment, he added.

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Former Budapest mayor Demszky to brief corruption probe committee

Budapest, February 7 (MTI) – The former liberal mayor of Budapest, Gábor Demszky, is expected to appear before a parliamentary committee investigating corruption surrounding the construction of the city’s fourth metro line, Demszky’s lawyer told Tuesday’s edition of Magyar Nemzet, claiming the former mayor had nothing to hide.

György Magyar said that Demszky’s legal responsibility was not at issue in the matter. The contract for building the fourth metro line was not signed by the metropolitan council but by the companies involved. Political responsibility should be distinguished from legal culpability, he said. Anyone who claims, based on the report by Europe’s anti-fraud office OLAF, that Demszky bears criminal liability violates the law, he added.

Socialist lawmaker Csaba Horváth, who was deputy mayor under Demszky, told the paper that he would also be ready to give evidence to the committee if invited to do so. He likewise insisted that the metro 4 project had not fallen within the metropolitan council’s competence.

Erzsébet Gy. Németh, an opposition Democratic Coalition lawmaker who at the time was a Socialist councillor, told the paper that she would not attend any committee hearings because the report had not raised any question of her liability in the case.

The current city leadership is totally unaffected by the findings of the OLAF report, Budapest Mayor Istvan Tarlós told commercial broadcaster Lánchíd Radio on Tuesday. He said that with a single exception, all the findings of the report related to the period before the 2010 general election. The gravest issue concerns the contract for Alstom trains concluded before the 2006 elections, he added.

“I don’t believe there’s anything to discuss,” Tarlós said, adding that the single exception after 2010 related to a change in control engineers.

The mayor expressed surprise over the declaration by Demszky’s lawyer that the former mayor had had nothing to do with the matter when no one had raised any suspicions. Tarlós said he did not wish to make any accusation that Demszky “might bear any substantive or certain liability, but his behaviour can be considered strange.”

DK leader and former Socialist Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány has also decided to stay away from the hearing, the party’s spokesman told a press conference. Zsolt Gréczy argued that OLAF’s report indicated that members of the then incumbent government were not implicated in the case. OLAF has only determined the legal responsibilities of the municipal council leadership and municipal council-owned companies at the time, Gréczy said. Regarding Gy. Németh’s decision not to attend, Gréczy said she had neither been a municipal council leader nor had she led any Budapest-owned company at the time, making her attendance “pointless”.

Meanwhile, Socialist Party MEP has called on the head of OLAF to clarify certain parts of the office’s report on the metro 4 scandal.

“The Orbán government is using the Hungarian media … to abuse the grave shortcomings of the report,” Szanyi said in a statement, calling on OLAF chief Giovanni Kessler to clarify and elaborate on “the many blurry statements” in the report “in order to prevent it from becoming … a propaganda tool of the government”.

Szanyi said the report, while naming officials, business people and lawyers as persons bearing legal culpability in the scandal, had failed to disclose any actual names with the exception of former Socialist Prime Minister Péter Medgyessy. But even Medgyessy’s role is not made clear, Szanyi said. He also criticised the report for failing to establish a timeline for the project, which he said left unclear when the various abuses had taken place. Szanyi also said there were a number of formal errors, contradictions and even hand-written corrections in the report, which he said gave the impression that it had been compiled under pressure in order to meet a strict deadline.

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Jobbik urges parliamentary investigation into OLAF M4 findings

Daily News Hungary

Budapest, February 4 (MTI) – The opposition Jobbik party has proposed setting up a parliamentary committee to investigate findings by the European Union’s anti-fraud office (OLAF) concerning alleged corruption in the construction of Budapest’s fourth metro line.

Gábor Staudt, Jobbik’s deputy group leader, told a press conference on Saturday that the committee should also find answers to the question “why perpetrators in such corruption cases are never held to account”.

Staudt insisted that ruling Fidesz, when it won power in 2010, had pledged that corrupt politicians would be tried, but it never happened. He also suggested that the prosecutor’s office “has performance problems” when it comes to investigating corruption.

Ruling Fidesz proposes committee to look into OLAF metro project findings

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Budapest, February 4 (MTI) – Ruling Fidesz has proposed that Budapest’s city council should set up an ad hoc committee to look into alleged corruption involved in the construction of the city’s fourth metro line, on the basis of a recent report by the European Union’s anti-fraud office (OLAF).

Speaking at a press conference on Saturday, Balázs Hidvéghi, communication chief of the party, called the construction project the “greatest corruption case” since Hungary’s democratic transition in 1989-1990.

Hidvéghi argued that the proposed body could greatly contribute to shedding lights on shady businesses in the project, through which he said as much as one third of the total budget was “embezzled or stolen”. He insisted that the previous, leftist governments and city management were “clearly responsible” for those cases.

Hidveghi said that Hungary would need to repay 59 billion forints (EUR 190m) to the European Commission, and the total damage amounted to 166 billion forints. “Where has that tremendous total gone?” Hidvéghi asked and urged that politicians involved in the dealings should be identified. “Who are those Socialist politicians, who are those Liberals who are still active within the Socialist Party, the Democratic Coalition, Együtt or in other parties?” he asked.

Photo: Daily News Hungary