The Hungarian MFA submitted a announcement to the D.A. on 25 August on the acquisition of respirators from March and April 2020. It is about 17,000 devices for 300 billion forints, or about $965 million. The case hits Viktor Orbán's erstwhile government and shows how costly power can be without control.
Notification after years
The Hungarian Ministry of abroad Affairs sent a announcement to the D.A. regarding suspected fraud and another crimes in pandemic medical equipment purchases. According to Gazeta.pl behind the MTI agency, the case concerns orders from 2020, erstwhile states in panic were looking for equipment to fight COVID-19, and the government was headed by Viktor Orbán.
By Associated Press the subject of the notification is purchases of respirators worth about $965 million. At the time, the Hungarian authorities were to bring any 17,000 devices from China in March and April 2020. Even then, there were allegations that the scale of the order exceeds the real possibilities of utilizing the equipment by the wellness system.
It's not a insignificant accounting adjustment. It's a question of a state under utmost pressure. The wellness crisis may justify fast decisions. However, it cannot turn the taxpayer's money into a ticket without control for intermediaries and people close to power.
Respirators, intermediaries and payer account
Anita Orbán, the current head of Hungarian diplomacy, reported that the ministry's interior findings indicate a suspected action against property harm and another possible crimes. AP besides reported that the survey included tens of thousands of documents, and any of the materials were digitally recovered after unsuccessful attempts to remove them. That sounds like a D.A. case, not a press conference.
The scale of the problem has been described for years Transparency global Hungary. The organization indicated that Hungary had bought over 17,000 respirators for over 300 billion forints, although the most pessimistic estimates of request spoke of 8.5 1000 machines, and around 1.6 1000 devices were utilized at the top of the pandemic. These are the numbers that request explanation.
The Hungarian case shows well the weakness of the country, which in crisis gives up hard procedures and later discovers warehouses full of equipment, defective equipment, retention costs and intermediaries earning on national fear. Right, if you take the state seriously, you cannot pretend that specified questions are uncomfortable just due to the fact that they concern the government from your own perfect camp.
Orbán under political fire
Of course, the substance has a political dimension. Viktor Orbán had already been under force after losing his power, and Peter Magyar's government is taking advantage of the chance to account for the symbolic period of pandemic management. This is simply a typical logic of change of power: fresh ones show old bills, and the prosecution is to find whether the bills were just incorrect or criminal.
You gotta keep a simple rule. announcement is not a judgment. erstwhile officials and politicians have the right to a presumption of innocence, and the prosecution must show facts, not emotions. At the same time, the public has the right to know who decided about the large money, who earned it and why the state bought more equipment than it could actually use.
For Poland it is simply a applicable lesson. The pandemic has shown across Europe that countries are able to spend billions under force of the minute and then very reluctantly show documents. akin problem of settlement of pandemic orders besides returned in Italy, where Giuseppe Conte explained himself to the Covid committee.
Sovereignty Needs Control
The national state does not trust on more power to be allowed due to the fact that it cites a crisis. It is that power has tools of action, but is controlled erstwhile it spends public money. Without it, sovereignty becomes a parawan for the deals, and the payer stays with the bill.
The Hungarian D.A. should now get full papers and the public should have a full answer. If there is abuse, the guilty must endure the consequences. If not, the state should clearly show why specified gigantic purchases were necessary. In both options, silence would be the worst solution. The nation has a right to know what was done with his money.
Source: Gazeta.pl, Associated Press, Transparency global Hungary.
Source: News
