Hajómutyi, offshore companies, public procurement scandals, Gyurcsányist consultants - this is the Budapest of Christmas today.
"Wherever Gyurcsány's people set foot, wrongdoing linked to them is revealed on a monthly basis in Budapest. Ministers, secretaries of state, cabinet chiefs of the former Gyurcsány government, or people related to them, have appeared everywhere in the capital, they are taking control, and Gergely Karácsony is assisting with this with a calm heart," emphasized Zsolt Wintermantel to Metropol.
According to the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP faction, due to irresponsibility and wrongdoings, the total amount that Budapest has had to pay in fines so far is over one billion, and in addition, there are cases in which criminal proceedings are ongoing.
"This is the boat tender, which probably also failed to be conducted properly by the BKV, because a police investigation is still ongoing," he added.
During the time of István Tarlós, scheduled Danube boat services were introduced in Buda and Pest, helping land public transport, but could also be used for tourist purposes. Passengers only had to exchange BKK tickets. In order to start the system - which, by the way, all of Budapest was happy about - the existing fleet of ships was put into operation in a refurbished state. Gergely Karácsony launched a tender for the further operation of this in 2021.
Despite the fact that the participating applicants themselves indicated that the company that the BKV announced as the winner probably had a false reference and requested an investigation, the BKV still announced the ominous company as the winner. For this reason, a report was filed in the case, and the police have already interrogated two suspects for abuse of office and other crimes.
The BKV spends an average of four to five million forints per month on the ships that have not operated according to schedule on the Danube for the third year, citing savings. The boats are docked in a Budapest harbor and are occasionally rented out for events.
"Gergely Karácsony originally canceled the service that started during Tarlós' time, citing a lack of funds. The real reason, however, remained unknown, as this argument is lame, because in this case it is not understandable why the application for operation was announced not long before... But it is also possible that the suspected criminal story broke and the investigation started, which scared them . It is impossible to know, but it is certain that something is not right, and the Danube transport service is shamefully not working. The Karácsony people managed to ax this too," said Zsolt Wintermantel. The head of the capital's Fidesz-KDNP faction added: "This is not the only scandal in the capital's transport sector led by the left and Gergely Karácsony."
Katalin Tüttő's scandalous bus rental tender was also highly publicized, the capital city lost nearly one billion forints due to the wrongly sold airport transfer bus tickets and the advertising tender.
During the BKV's second-hand bus rental tender, they contracted with a company that was created a few days before the call for tenders. It didn't even have its own bus. During the tender, it used buses owned by another company. Since then, the Karácsonys have not answered who decided to sign a contract with the offshore company, and who is responsible.
The procurement of the Frankfurt trams is also memorable, the tender for which was issued to a specific company.
In 2021, on the last day of the extraordinary legal order, Gergely Karácsony decided on his own to purchase used vehicles worth 7 billion. He did not bring the purchase before the general assembly, even though it was not a small change. In addition, the public procurement was issued illegally, presumably "preparing the Frankfurt trams for a successful tender". Then it quickly became clear that Frankfurt scrapped the trams because they cannot be air-conditioned, which is why they are so hot in the summer. The Public Procurement Decision Committee revealed several serious violations of the law at BKV in relation to the tram muti. Not only was he ordered to pay a HUF 150 million fine, but the Emergency Police also ordered an investigation on suspicion of "agreement restricting competition in public procurement and concession procedures".
The Public Procurement Decision Committee fined the Budapest Transport Center HUF 50 million for the purchase of thermal security paper used in ticket machines.
As a member of the board of BKK, Zsolt Wintermantel stated that he drew attention to the possible problems and the professional responsibility of those involved in the procedure on several occasions, but the board led by Tibor Draskovics brushed aside his comments and chose the company that submitted the more expensive quote as the winner.
After the 2019 elections, Karácsony should only have signed the valid and winning bid with the multinational company with French background in the matter of the memorable advertising tender after the 2019 elections.
According to the contract, Multi would have paid more than HUF 1.7 billion per year for eight years for the right to use the advertising surfaces belonging to the vehicle sector and BKK's infrastructure (adjusted for inflation). For unknown reasons, the Karácsonys said no, instead re-announcing the same public procurement. After the repeated procedure, slipping into the period of the Covid epidemic, the same company won the same tender for two and a half times less money. The loss of the people of Budapest is approximately HUF 2.6 million per day, approximately HUF 80 million per month, and almost HUF one billion per year.
The Public Procurement Decision Committee ordered the capital to pay a penalty of HUF 115+5 million due to the advertising tender.
BKK and BKV were fined 200+60 million in two years: the capital's transport company did not comply with the public procurement rules in 2021 either, when they made a mistake in connection with the renovation of Blaha Lujza Square. By the end of 2021, together with the advertising tender, the companies of the Metropolitan Municipality dealing with transport organization and operation received a fine of more than HUF 200 million, which was paid by Budapest taxpayers. For example, in connection with the public procurement of multi-functional trucks, a mistake was made that cost BKV another HUF 5 million.
Zsolt Wintermantel has previously touched on some decisions that take hundreds of millions out of the pockets of Budapest residents, and which clearly demonstrate the irresponsible management of the left-wing city administration.
At a Capital Assembly, he asked the mayor: "Are you sure that Gergely Karácsony appointed the right people to the positions in the capital? Tibor Draskovics, Tamás Katona, Zoltán Gál J., Zoltán Szabó and the others. State secretaries and ministers of the Gyurcsány governments line up in companies everywhere. Mr. Mayor, the shadow government was not formed around Klára Dobrev, but here in the capital, with your help," the leader of the Fidesz-KDNP faction emphasized at the time.
It seems that even though the City Hall pays 34 consultants, Gergely Karácsony has been complaining about bankruptcy for 4 years and talking about insolvency. As part of the austerity package, the city has now also forced the city to take out loans, but it still has money for what the DK majority representatives want it to do.
According to Wintermantel, this is how the "Residents' Assembly" is organized, in which the following companies appear:
There, for example, is Crevocorp Kft., which has been well-known since its foundation for Klára Dobrev's pre-campaign, and has also worked for the DK party foundation, or for mayors Imre László, or Péter Niedermüller, or Angéla Cserdiné Németh. The left-wing II. also received a million-dollar order from the district, but they were the ones who also produced the flyers and advertising materials of Péter Márki-Zay before last year's parliamentary election. But the public opinion polling institute Publicus appeared and Péter Záránd appeared - Márki-Zay, the former campaign manager of Momentum and Róbert Puzsér, as well, receiving millions of commissions - pointed out Wintermantel.
Cover photo: Karácsony drove the capital into borrowing, but he fulfills the wishes of the representatives of the DK at any time
Source: MTI/Noémi Bruzák
