After Gergely Karácsony's previous controversial statements, it finally became clear what amount of bonuses the capital city managers received. Balázs Barts, the main actor in the scandal of the proposed sale of the City Hall and who was disciplined, received 5.2 million forints, the same amount as Imre Mártha, who has a fortune of billions, the ridiculed top manager of the Gyurcsány branch of the utilities.

While Mayor Gergely Karácsony is constantly talking about the bleeding of Budapest and its financial crisis, sums of several million were distributed last year to the business leaders of the capital municipality, including Balázs Barts, who was negotiating with businessmen about the planned sale of the City Hall, according to the response to the public interest data request. According to official information from the Office of the Mayor, the head of the asset management company received a HUF 5,220,000 bonus last year.

This is also interesting because Balázs Barts received a written discipline from Mayor Gergely Karácsony two months ago, after it was revealed that the head of the asset manager had previously negotiated with businessmen about the possible sale of the City Hall building. At a press conference in December, Karácsony claimed that Balázs Barts was caught in the act when an audio recording was made of him, but he could not deny that the CEO of the capital's asset manager also talked about the sale of the City Hall, which is why he was allegedly disciplined.

according to  the audio recordings presented by the masked figure, Anonymus, Balázs Barts  discussed the sale of the City Hall with investors in May of last year , according to Karácsony, without the authorization of the capital management. Thus, while the head of the asset manager committed what he was later disciplined for, his activities were rewarded with a bonus of more than HUF 5 million.

The contradictions of the reward system were only exacerbated by the mayor, who in January maneuvered himself into a spiral of lies, as he contradicted himself in successive statements. First, at the meeting of the capital investigation committee set up in the City Hall case, he firmly stated that Balázs Barts, the head of the capital's asset management company, was given a year-end bonus by the capital. The mayor then emphasized that all company managers received a reward. After that, the Mayor's Office denied Karácsony's words when asked by the press, they replied that Barts did not receive a reward.

Then the mayor began an awkward explanation for the Mediaworks News Center. "Unfortunately, I didn't remember the dates well, I made a statement from memory," answered Karácsony to the question about the end-of-year bonus of the head of the asset management company. He claimed that Balázs Barts did not receive a year-end bonus, last year he could only take the bonus for the year 2020. However, he refused to give a clear answer as to whether the director of the asset management company will receive the bonus for the year 2021.

The response to the public interest data request revealed that Balázs Barts, who had been disciplined, still received a bonus last year. Like him, Imre Mártha, the top executive of the capital's utility companies living in luxury, was also able to borrow a hefty sum.

Origo's full article here. Author: Mediaworks News Center

Photo: Zoltán Máthé/MTI