Responsibility for the metro 4 line project fiasco lies with the liberal-socialist metropolitan leadership and government in office at the time, Zoltán Kovács, government spokesperson, has said.
Kovács stressed that it is the duty of the authorities to find out who is responsible under criminal law for the malpractices and irregularities surrounding the project.
During an interview on Kossuth Rádió's 180 Minutes program, Kovács said it is absolutely clear that this case is about the “complex collusion” of the metropolitan leadership and government in office at the time and international companies, a major crime on their part, “every element of which must be uncovered, but this is not the government’s duty”.
According to Kovács, due to more than half a dozen specific crimes and breaches uncovered in the report of the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the government had no choice but to file a report with the prosecution service in the case.
He remarked that there are instances when there is scope for disputing the findings, for instance, when the parties construe one and the same rule in different ways, he said in reference to the asphalt case closed last year which originally conveyed the threat of a fine of 120-140 billion HUF.
In answer to the question as to whether the OLAF report could be construed as a criticism levelled at the administration of justice in Hungary, Kovács said that “we may have to review a few issues concerning the extent of internal audits and the stringency of monitoring”.
Experiences show that illegal migrants “abuse European law as a matter of course”: between the judgements passed at first and second instance, they simply disappear in Western-Europe, despite the fact that the right of free movement within the Schengen Area is the sole privilege of European nationals, Mr Kovács stressed.