NEW CARTEL SCANDAL

Suspicious public acquisition of informatics for universities. The Office of Fair Competition has searched the premises of three big companies of informatics recently because they are suspected to have been in collusion to win the public acquisition tenders of four universities in the value of HUF 6 billion in the first half of this year.

Earlier the representatives of all the three companies took part in a background talk organized by the Ministry of Education. Last week the Cartel Group of the Office of Fair Competition confiscated documents and electronic data carriers in the headquarters of IBM Hungary Ltd, SAP Hungary Ltd, and International System House Ltd, Index internet news portal reported. The Ministry of Education confirmed the fact that there had been a background talk but they qualified it a regular procedure and claimed the universities did not have to make a statement they would receive the bid of the preselected companies. According to Index the procedure was well-known in the circle of other companies of informatics so they did not even try to compete.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó