The Economic Committee of Parliament sought to hear former socialist metropolitan deputy mayors Csaba Horváth and Miklós Hagyó, as well as Erzsébet Gy. Német, former leader of the MSZP group of the Metropolitan Assembly, now a politician of DK, with respect to the greatest corruption scandal of all time. The invited politicians, however, did not appear at the hearing. The left-wing politicians have all the necessary information at their disposal, yet, they choose to boycott the Economic Committee’s work, Nándor Csepreghy, Minister of State at the Prime Minister’s Office stressed at the meeting of the Economic Committee of Parliament discussing the OLAF report.

The Economic Committee of Parliament made an attempt for the second time to hear the individuals concerned in the metro scandal. The Committee planned to hear former socialist Prime Ministers Péter Medgyessy, Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai and former metropolitan mayor Gábor Demszky on 15 February, but they did not attend the hearing.

The Government announced on 12 January that the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) had uncovered the embezzlement of some HUF 166 billion as a result of its four-year investigation regarding the metro line 4 project which was closed last year. One third of the metro project (HUF 166 billion) was embezzled and stolen. Based on the report, the suspicions of fraud, criminal malfeasance, bribery and mismanagement emerged, and all of the findings of the report, with the exception of one, relate to the period between 2005 and 2009. The Government filed a report with the prosecution service against unknown perpetrators. Due to the irregularities, the European Commission may require Hungary to repay HUF 59 billion.

The Government supports the work of the investigating authorities and Parliament. They have handed over all available documents to the prosecution service and the police, while OLAF provided further documents for the law enforcement agencies.

(MTI, kormany.hu)