Subscribe to our social channels to get the latest news about Hungary!
Government: Metro 4 case ‘textbook example of fraud’
Change language:
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.
In this period i was teaching one of the heads of the bidding teams. That person went to the meetin gat which Alstom was awarded the contract. The three final bideers were given an envelope (yes it was in wrting) which included the details of where the extra money should go if they were awarded the contarct. All the bank account were outside of Hungary and the value was about 20% of the final price. If no one can send taroudn 20- poepl to jail then they shoudl take a gun to tehri head and shoot themmselves. The info id easily available but allaprties are involved.
I reckon much more than 20% lost in fraud
Line 4 is 10 stations and 7.4 km for 1.4 -1.5bn Euros
Bucharest M6 is equivalent , all underground, 17km and 12 stations, and our budget is 1.0bn Euros.
maybe it will run out to 1.1bn Euros, but Budapest is about 75% overpriced, at least.