Közgép, which handed in the cheapest tender, reportedly said in a public announcement following the decision that the company will appeal the decision using “all available legal means”, and said that the decision is against Hungarian and EU rules, Hungarian online daily index.hu reported. However according to Hungarian news agency MTI, the appeal will “not delay the implementation of the resolution”.
Közgép is partly owned by Simicska, a media oligarch who had been a close associate of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán since the two met while sharing a room in their college dormitory in the 1980s. Their long-standing alliance underwent a very public split earlier this year following a series of measures imposed by the government that allegedly harmed Simicskaʼs media empire.
The Hungarian subsidiary of German RTL said that, since the Orbán government came into power in 2010, Közgép received state orders valued at more than HUF 100 bln through public procurement tenders.
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