The Socialists believe an in-depth probe by the Hungarian National Authority for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (NAIH) proves that the ministry of human resources “intentionally abused its powers and unlawfully withheld data of public interest,” an MEP for the opposition party said on Facebook on Sunday.
István Ujhelyi said the NAIH had faulted the ministry for withholding information he had requested of public interest related to the pandemic.
In light of the revelation, he said Minister of Human Resources István Kásler should resign, but since he will obviously not do so “he would have a moral obligation to make at least the requested data available after the relevant authority’s condemnation,” the politician said.
Ujhelyi said he had requested information from the ministry on the vaccination status of coronavirus patients, the circumstances of the EU vaccine acquisitions, and the government’s involvement in these matters but was repeatedly and unlawfully denied access to the information by the government.
Exactly a year ago, Ujhelyi sent nine questions to the Ministry of Human Resources “to clarify the circumstances of EU vaccine procurement and the government’s role in it.” At that time, the politician said that the government constantly claimed that the EU vaccine acquisition was flawed, delayed, late, and incomplete. Officially, this is the very reason the Chinese and Russian vaccines were, the Socialist MEP stated.
However, according to Ujhelyi, the government only attacked the joint vaccine purchase of Brussels and lied about its details, “because it wanted to cover up suspicions of corruption in the procurement of Eastern vaccines, which is currently causing serious problems due to the lack of EU authorizations.”
The Socialist MEP noted that even though the Fidesz government had always claimed vaccine deliveries from Brussels were delayed, these unreleased documents could prove that the government was fully aware of the delivery deadlines.
According to Ujhelyi, the NAIH’s detailed investigation found that the ministry had withheld the requested data and information without any basis; for example, they had made a completely false claim that the name of the government delegate “would jeopardize the legitimate functioning of the Ministry.”
Ujhelyi pointed out that according to the NAIH report, the authority has repeatedly called on the ministry headed by Miklós Kásler to share the requested data and information without success.
The MSZP politician called it “particularly scandalous” that the ministry headed by Miklós Kásler is not even willing to comply with the request of the state authority.
If the ministry fails to comply with its legal obligations within 30 days, he said the matter would be taken to court.
Featured photo by Lajos Soós/MTI
