Budapest mayor, Gergely Karácsony, announced that anyone who can prove any kind of misuse in the Budapest Municipality’s public tenders, written out for the sale of the capital’s assets, will receive HUF 1 million (EUR 2,736) from his own mayoral salary.
In the video posted on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day, Karácsony speaks about the importance of fighting corruption in front of a commercial space in the 5th district, which was sold during Antal Rogán’s leadership (PM Viktor Orbán’s current cabinet chief regularly comes under corruption allegations for his term in the district), for the price of a panel house apartment, according to Karácsony.
Here we have a real City Hall case, a good reason for Fidesz to do some fact-finding,”
commented Karácsony, in reference to the City Hall case, in which pro-Fidesz media published leaked recordings about a potential sale and the related trade-offs of other Budapest properties, but in which no misuse has been proven yet. Meanwhile, the investigative committee, set up to look into alleged plans by the city’s leadership, began working recently (you can read more about the case here and here).
Karácsony also referred to Deputy Justice Minister Pál Völner’s case, claiming that there could be “interesting” Budapest connections to be uncovered in the large-scale corruption case. “For example, how the key figure in the Völner case acquired valuable property in Városház Street under confusing circumstances, by the decision of the Fidesz mayor of the 5th district,” asks Karácsony.
In a bid to also “help the work of the investigative committee, in the spirit of transparency and publicity, which are the most important tools in the fight against corruption, I offer one million forints from my mayoral salary to anyone who shows any signs of abuse in the public tenders for the usage of the capital’s property, if they can prove that any of the open tenders would be restrictive or for personal use,” the mayor said.
featured image via Párbeszéd’s Facebook page