On Tuesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán stated that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has formally filed a criminal complaint with the prosecution office regarding the suspected fraud in the procurement of nearly $1 billion worth of ventilators during the early stages of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic by the previous government. The transaction amounted to approximately $9.65 billion (about 300 billion forints) and investigations have revealed alleged significant financial irregularities, fraud, and breach of trust.
According to reports from the Associated Press, the previous government led by former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán purchased around 17,000 ventilators from China in March and April 2020. At that time, the decision faced criticism for the excessive quantity purchased, far surpassing the actual deployment capacity, and the significantly higher unit price compared to other European countries.
Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, who is not related to the former prime minister, announced in a video posted on social media platform Facebook on Tuesday that the investigation into the procurement case has “raised serious suspicions of breach of trust and other criminal offenses, resulting in significant financial losses”. She highlighted that the quantity of ventilators procured far exceeded the operational capacity of hospital beds and healthcare professionals in Hungary, with only about 2,000 qualified intensive care medical staff nationwide at the time.
Furthermore, customs and tax data indicated that the purchased ventilators came from Hungarian intermediary suppliers at prices significantly higher than the factory prices, and much higher than the average procurement prices in other EU countries. The Hungarian government’s official statement disclosed that most of the ventilators were ordered through intermediary companies, leading to exponential revenue increases for the related businesses. Some of the procured equipment had quality defects, while the majority remained unused and stored in warehouses for years, incurring warehouse costs amounting to millions of dollars.
To uncover the truth, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ internal audit team utilized digital tools to restore 88GB of approximately 130,000 electronic documents from data that had been unsuccessfully deleted. This has raised serious questions about the legal accountability of former senior leaders of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Péter Szijjártó, the former Foreign Minister who served in the previous government for nearly 12 years, oversaw the procurement of the ventilators and 5 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
Szijjártó recently resigned from his position as a member of parliament to join Chinese automotive giant BYD in a senior executive role. Due to his past advocacy for providing substantial subsidies to the company during his tenure, suspicions of conflicts of interest have emerged, leading the Hungarian government to launch an investigation into the large-scale investments made by BYD under his leadership.
The news team of the former right-wing ruling party, Fidesz, known as the Youth Democratic Alliance (Fidesz), has not yet issued a formal response to the lawsuit. The case has been fully handed over to the prosecution for further criminal investigation.