Head of state fence-building firm also oversaw tendering

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Wikimedia Commons/Délmagyarország/Schmidt Andrea

The Ministry of Defense official in charge of the office deciding who would win the HUF 2 bln contract to help build a fence on the Serbian-Hungarian border was also the head of the state-owned firm that won the job as the sole-bidder, according to a report from index.hu. Laborers for that company received as much as HUF 10,795, index.hu said.

As director of the team responsible for building the fence to stop refugees entering Hungary, Ministry of National Defense State Secretary István Dankó was in charge of those deciding on the tender, and he is also chairman of the board of HM EI, the state-owned military company that won the tender, index.hu said.

As the sole bidder, HM EI received an official contract for the job on August 2, only one day after the tender was advertised and a government regulation on conflict of interest was amended, to allow for the unusual bidding process, index.hu reported.

In early August, Fidesz fraction spokesperson Bence Tuzson said all the work on the fence would cost taxpayers a little more than HUF 3 bln, but not long after that announcement, the cost rose to HUF 20 bln, according to reports.

HM EI’s portion of the fence work appear to be the only traceable expenses of the overall budget, according to index.hu. The contract with HM EI also set the hourly wage for attaching the razor wire to the existing posts at as high as HUF 10,795, index.hu added.

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