In representation of the Government, the Office of the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary State Secretary Nándor Csepreghy has submitted the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) report on the Metro 4 project to the Office of the Mayor of Budapest.
At a press conference in front of the Lord Mayor’s Office, Mr. Csepreghy told reporters: he had submitted the full documentation of the report to the Office of Mayor of Budapest István Tarlós in accordance with the decision of the Cabinet and on the orders of the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, János Lázár.
On the reasons for the submission of the report, he added: “In order for the Hungarian Government to develop its standpoint and formulate a reply to the European Commission’s suggestion that the pre-2010 city leadership had “stolen, embezzled or incorrectly used 166 billion forints”, it needs to know the standpoint of both the Municipality of Budapest, as beneficiary, and of the city’s current leadership, as legal successor”.
“Accordingly, in the cover letter attached to the report I have asked Mayor Tarlós to share his opinion on the acts detailed in the OLAF report with the Hungarian Government by 28 February to enable the commencement of negotiations between the Hungarian Government and the European Commission”, he continued.
Mr. Csepreghy stressed that he hoped the work performed by the Municipality of Budapest would substantially contribute to enabling the Government to mitigate the damage that the pre-2010 city leadership and government had caused to Hungary.
In reply to a question on when the report would be made public, the State Secretary explained that OLAF has classified the documents according to European data protection regulations and not the relative Hungarian regulations, and so the Hungarian Government has asked the organisation to declassify the documents via its permanent representation to the European Commission. According to Mr. Csepreghy, if OLAF and the European Commission declassify the report as requested, the Hungarian Government will upload it to the government news portal within 24 hours. “The Government is expecting a clear, written reply form OLAF and the European Commission on the issue”, he added.
“There is no question that this is the largest development project and largest corruption case in the history of Hungary’s 13-year membership of the European Union”, he said.
In reply to claims by left-wing politicians that technical reasons are to blame for the case, Mr. Chepreghy said the claims were untrue and that the only reason for the fine that the European Union is threatening to impose is “the sheer amount of resources stolen, embezzled or incorrectly used during the Demszky era”.
In reply to a question from the press, the State Secretary explained that 272 billion forints out of the total project cost of 452 billion forints are involved in the corruption case, of which OLAF claims that 166 billion were stolen of embezzled. “76 billion of the 166 billion forints is derived from EU development programs, 15 percent of which were financed by Hungary and 85 percent from the European Commission budget”, he added.
“It is in the Government’s interests for the prosecutor’s office to complete its procedures as soon as possible to enable the Hungarian justice system to determine and state which individuals, politicians, business people with political connections, or enterprises must be held responsible for the damage caused”, the State Secretary highlighted.