As part of the modifications for public procurement, the price-value ratio rather than the lowest price offered would be the key factor in evaluating a tender, Hungarian online daily origo.hu reported yesterday.

Critics of the modifications say that this point is aimed specifically at Lajos Simicska’s Közgép. Since Simicska and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had a public falling out, his flagship company Közgép stopped winning public procurement tenders, despite offering the lowest price. The Hungarian Public Procurement Board banned Közgép from public procurement tenders in July for what it called “false data”. As a result, the firm turned to the Budapest Administrative and Labor Court in September.