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Minister of Transport and Public Works Dávid Vitézy answers an urgent question during a plenary session of the National Assembly on May 26, 2026. He has vowed to review the Budapest–Belgrade railway upgrade project. Photo by Róbert Hegedüs / MTI
The State Audit Office reported that HUF 286 billion in uncovered expenditures may be missing from the 2026 budget in areas overseen by the Ministry of Construction and Transport. The largest shortfall concerns the national expressway network’s availability fee, where HUF 175.6 bln is unaccounted for, followed by the Budapest–Belgrade railway, which requires an additional HUF 87.7 bln, and the Iváncsa industrial rail project with a HUF 22.3 bln gap.
Alongside the construction and transport ministry, the Ministry for National Economy was also involved because it co-handled budget planning and provided explanations for some of the assumptions, with the Prime Minister’s Off ice indirectly involved in the budget structure and oversight framework.
According to the independent news outlet Telex, the ministries cited a non‑public government decree and a planned new Chinese loan as justification but did not provide contracts or calculations, preventing auditors from verifying the figures. The audit office noted that ministries declared under criminal liability that their submissions were complete, yet ÁSZ could not determine whether it had been misled due to missing documentation.
In the case of the Budapest–Belgrade railway, officials argued that most construction would finish in 2025, reducing 2026 payments, but newly released documents still show nearly HUF 88 bln in additional funding needs. ÁSZ added that it had warned Parliament about risks in these budget lines last year, but the then‑Fidesz majority approved the appropriations unchanged.
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