Horváth András says there was no genuine competition in Óbuda park maintenance public procurement tenders
According to analysis by a former NAV employee, Pannon Park Forest Kft. won every contract without rival bidders, whilst hundreds of millions of forints were distributed back to municipal leaders.
Horváth András says there was no genuine competition in Óbuda park maintenance public procurement tenders
Horváth András, a former employee of the National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV), analysed on the programme "Szinten túl" the corruption case affecting multiple Budapest districts. The investigation is proceeding on suspicion of bribery combined with abuse of influence and further criminal offences.
The conversation focused on the Budapest park maintenance scandal. Horváth András explained: according to publicly available procurement data, the company operating under the name Pannon Park Forest Kft. never faced any meaningful competition against it. The framework agreements created such an obscure set of conditions that excluded genuine competition, so the contracts went to the same company almost automatically.
According to the charges, the company's former owner transferred hundreds of millions of forints to municipal decision-makers so that his company could carry out the park maintenance work. Regarding how the money left the system, Horváth András outlined two possible routes: either they invoiced above the contract prices, or they concluded agreements that were not backed by actual performance.
The expert believes the abuses could not have remained hidden from state bodies. The NAV and the competition authority must have known about the processes, particularly since the press was writing about the suspicious circumstances as early as 2020. Nevertheless, at the beginning of 2024, District III continued to contract with the company in question – something that would probably not have happened with more serious oversight.
Horváth András became nationally known in 2013 when he made public his documents about how funds are withdrawn from the budget through semi-legal company networks.
Source: Telex.hu
Source: Telex