Leaked emails have placed the deputy leader of Hungary’s ruling Tisza party in contact with the company that won the contract for the August 20 state celebrations, weeks before the tender opened. Ákos Hadházy, a former independent MP and anti-corruption campaigner, published the correspondence on August 26.
The messages concern the HUF 3.91 billion (€10.7 million) gross contract awarded to the events firm Hardrock. The National Event Organising Agency (NRÜ) had terminated its agreements with Lounge Event, part of a group linked to the Fidesz-era communications businessman Gyula Balásy.
A former Tisza events director wrote to Lounge on June 16 requesting information about this year’s programme at the request of government commissioner Márk Radnai, who was copied in. By June 21 Hardrock’s managing director, Dániel Besnyő, had joined the exchanges and was asking for budget, supplier and technical details.
NRÜ cancelled the Lounge contracts on June 23. Its own chronology dates the start of work on the replacement requirement to June 24.
The agency opened an emergency negotiated procedure on July 7 and invited three companies. The two unsuccessful invitees told the business news site G7, which first reported the case on August 20, that they learned of the tender that day and declined because the deadline was too short.
Hardrock submitted the only bid. The tender closed on July 14 and the contract was signed the following day.
Radnai said he had played “no part whatsoever” in the procurement or the organisation of the event. He said his address appeared in copy on some messages but that he had neither read nor answered them.
Besnyő denied acting improperly, though he acknowledged approaching Lounge for information before the tender was announced. He said it had become widely known in the events industry that Lounge would not deliver the state celebration.
Fidesz filed a public interest notification with the Public Procurement Authority on August 24. Mi Hazánk leader László Toroczkai lodged a criminal complaint over suspected restriction of competition in a procurement procedure.
Hadházy said the reduced cost of this year’s programme did not settle the question. “Just because they steal less, it is still theft,” he wrote.
The case cuts against the platform on which Prime Minister Péter Magyar won a two-thirds majority in April, when Tisza promised regime change and an end to the patronage networks built under former prime minister Viktor Orbán. The Hungarian Government has made unlocking suspended EU funds its main priority.
