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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