Hungast corruption: bribery allegations surrounding Pécs public catering contracts
According to 444, prosecutors suspect that the owner and chief executive of the Hungast group paid money to municipal leaders in exchange for favourable contracts. Pécs has contracts exclusively with Hungast for public catering matters.
Pécs public catering thread in large-scale corruption case
The corruption scandal erupted on Tuesday, affecting several district municipalities in the capital, leading to proceedings against politicians linked to Fidesz, MSZP and Momentum. By Friday, eight people had been arrested – including, on the basis of prior prosecution briefing, presumably current and former district II mayors Gergely Őrsi and Zsolt Láng, Zsolt Molnár, former MSZP party director, and Péter Puskás, Óbuda Fidesz chairman and former deputy mayor.
According to 444's report, the case originally began as corruption connected to park maintenance, but Attila Péterffy, mayor of Pécs, made it clear through a Facebook post on Thursday evening and a court statement on Friday that the investigation is also concerning public catering contracts. The court stated that "the owner and chief executive of a company group providing public catering services bribed public officials to secure contracts for their company group".
Pécs's sole public catering partner is Hungast
Which company group is in question was strongly suggested by Péterffy's post: the authorities requested public catering contracts from workers at the Pécs Supply Centre (PEK) dating from after 2014. The institutions under PEK entered into a ten-year contract with the Hungast group in 2012, while Pécs Sport Nonprofit Ltd contracted with Hungast Mecsek Ltd in 2015. On Friday, the municipality confirmed in writing: "since 2012, the city of Pécs's public catering institution has had an active contract exclusively with the Hungast group for public catering tasks".
According to an earlier prosecution statement, with the involvement of the entrepreneur in question, "a representative of the company group also paid money to István Kőhegyi, a leading politician in Pécs, for the same reason, through Zsolt Molnár". The suspicion is therefore that two businessmen linked to Hungast gave bribes through an intermediary to politicians in districts II and III and Pécs so that they would conclude contracts favourable to the company group.
Erik Bánki's name also emerged
Ákos Hadházy, an opposition politician, also named Hungast in a Friday post. He is partly familiar with the company from district XIV – where Hungast also carries out public catering – and partly because of South Transdanubian connections and the name of Erik Bánki, a former influential Baranya Fidesz politician. Bánki was already mentioned in the early 2010s as if Hungast fell within his sphere of interests. Bánki consistently denies this, but in summer 2024 Hadházy discovered that the politician uses a car leased by Hungast. On Thursday, Erik Bánki stated: "no authority has approached me whatsoever".
The company's communications director on leave, the owner allegedly brought in
444 attempted to reach Hungast and Csaba Enyedi, the company's communications director, both on Thursday and Friday. A colleague answered Enyedi's phone; on Thursday he still said he would pass on the inquiry – but on Friday he informed the editorial office that "the communications director has been on leave since yesterday". Enyedi had not read a Messenger message, and nobody answered the Hungast switchboard all day.
HVG reported on Thursday that Gy. Tamás, one of the company group's owners, was also brought in. According to the paper, Gy. and H. Csaba, the company group's chief executive, were taken in for matters involving dealings with municipalities. The majority owner of Hungast is called Gy. Tamás, and there is a manager at the company with the first name Csaba whose surname begins with H.
Hungast's expansion and previous scandals
The Hungast group expanded dynamically from the 2010s and has since become a dominant player in Hungary's public catering market. The initial period, however, was not free of scandals: Pest County Council accumulated billions in arrears to the company, whereupon Hungast closed its kitchens, with the county breaking into them in the summer of 2011. In Esztergom that same year, public catering was similarly discontinued, citing arrears by the client.
The Public Procurement Notices contain 122 entries for Hungast as the winning bidder. Among its clients are not only municipalities, but also the University of Pécs and the Social and Child Protection Directorate. District II's public catering procurement has been handled by Hungast Vital Ltd since 2022, district III concluded a 2+2 year contract a year later with a consortium of Hungast Vital Ltd and Hungast 14 Ltd, while Pécs signed a new agreement in 2022 – after the earlier contract concluded in 2012 expired – and the Pécs Supply Centre also contracted with Hungast Mecsek in summer 2023.
Complex ownership structure
The Hungast group is part of Gy. Tamás's interests through the OrganX holding company. Among the smaller shareholders are also two of Gy.'s siblings. The investigation into the matter is currently running along multiple parallel lines, with the number of those arrested reaching eight by Friday.
Source: 444