It is possible that the demand of sixty billion is simply wrong, István Tarlós told Magyar Nemzet, in response to Deputy Mayor Anett Bősz's statement last week that this much money would be needed to complete the biodome, and that in the increasingly tight financial grip imposed by the government, he could not nor to cover the maintenance costs of the half-finished facility. The former mayor of Budapest also said that the claim that the biodome was a state project is wrong, and it is incomprehensible why the capital's left-wing leadership did not finish the construction when the necessary funds were available.

- The opposition media constantly writes complaining articles full of untruths about the fact that the capital has no money to heat the unfinished building. Instead of discussing why the construction was stopped, why and how the heating was done, why the biodome was guarded for four years at all, said István Tarlós.

He recalled that the biodome was never a state project, but that the state financed a capital project, more specifically a zoo project.

He pointed out that the biodome was the initiative of the zoo, which was also accepted by the Capital Assembly, and the government provided financial support twice, once with 25 billion forints, and later with an additional 19 billion forints at the initiative of Miklós Persányi.

"No one has ever put the zoo in trouble." This was done by the zoo at its own request - underlined the former city manager. He drew attention to the fact that Persányi certified the budget included in the agreement even in June 2019 with his signature, and then that month he submitted another HUF 20 billion additional request to the Capital City Development Council. He said that the council could not even discuss this, because the amount was not supported by anything, and until the 2019 election, a clear and orderly clarification of this demand was not made by the zoo.

István Tarlós also spoke about the fact that after the election, the capital did not continue this project - by ignoring the reasons that correspond to reality. He stated that the zoo still had six billion forints of the project's specific funding available, and the government also offered the seven billion forints intended for the Hermina garages.

- This is a total of thirteen billion forints. To meet the twenty billion requested by Persányi, the capital would have had to add only seven billion forints to complete the construction of the zoo. In 2019-2020, the Karácsony could not even formally talk about the "bleeding out" of the city  

István Tarlós recorded.

He reminded me that

in the fall of 2019, more than two hundred billion forints were available in the capital's coffers, which the city administration does not deny either. - Despite this, the capital did not continue the work, but stopped it,

and since then, horrible sums have been paid for the heating and guarding of the biodome - underlined Tarlós, and then expressed his incomprehension as to why a reinforced concrete structure inside the closed area of ​​the zoo had to be guarded separately at night.

Responding to the fact that the Karácsonys "found" the solution to tempering the building - by channeling the warm water from the Széchenyi bath - Tarlós revealed that this was already the case in the plans completed many years ago.

- There is also the question of how the twenty billion missing in 2019 became a demand of more than sixty billion forints - raised István Tarlós. According to him, if we look for reasons at all costs, it can essentially be ruled out that Persányi manipulated the money, which Enviroduna, which checks the regularity of payments, would have noticed anyway. The former mayor's opinion is that Persányi was able to account for himself and did not calculate various costs related to the equipment. As he indicated, it cannot be ruled out that the current city administration may already be counting on forecasted operating costs, but this is never included in the cost of the projects, and the rate of four-year inflation also plays a role, but it is possible that the demand of sixty billion is simply wrong.

- It is certain that there is no professionally or logically supportable explanation for the four-year stoppage of construction - as well as the one-and-a-half-year delay of the Lánchíd renovation. There had to be another motive.

István Tarlós noted.

The full article HERE .

Photo: Hungarian Nation