MOTORWAY AND CLIENTELE BUILDING

Lucrative commissions have been given to pro-government companies.

Now it seems almost certain that the section of M6 motorway between Érd and Dunaújváros will not be ready in time, Magyar Nemzet has been informed. The construction consortium should open the section to traffic by March 31, 2006 but the work has been going on at a snail’s pace. The M6 Duna Motorway Consortium (M6DA) was announced by István Csillag, Minister of Economy as the winner of the tender and shortly after it he had to leave his post. It has also turned out that the contract concluded with M6DA was detrimental for the state from several points of view. The whole story can be described as a series of political scandals, corruption, and cabinet crisis. The HUF 125 billion worth commission was won by a consortium the members of which had not any reference work in Hungary. The opposition members of the committee evaluating the bids opposed the decision. István Csillag decided in spite of all professional opinions in favour of M6DA on August 6, 2004 and Premier Medgyessy relieved him of his post a few days later. Experts had reported earlier that the bid of the German-Austrian consortium was vague and too risky as the companies involved had been suspected with corruption and bribery. After giving the sack to the Free Democrat minister Premier Medgyessy claimed the Alliance of Free Democrats was full of affairs of corruption and bribery. Soon after this Premier Medgyessy became toppled with the active participation of the Free Democrats. The contract has not been supervised by the Gyurcsány cabinet, either, though the control of the investment is in the hands of an engineer who is paid by the consortium and the state has no possibility to check or stop the construction work. The lack of a good technology and that of the adequate building material in Hungary has led to more and more blunders and delays.

One of the significant subcontractors, Viadom Holding, close to the Free Democrats, broke into the market after the change of government in 2002 and claimed 30 pc more for ’overwork fee’ than contracted originally. Such extra fees are paid entirely by the state and may not be passed to Brussels. This technique of a too low original bid has distorted the market. The deadline of the tender for building further sections of the M0 motorway is October 25 so not only the interested parties but the public at large watch the process wondering if the same old story will be repeated or not.

Translated by Péter Szentmihályi Szabó