He said his team has “identified a number of criminal cases where I personally believe that we should be as a country … in a position to recover those funds and have those funds repatriated, because most of these have already left the country,” Biró said. He did not make specific allegations against Orbán or other members of his inner circle. Orbán and his Fidesz party did not respond to requests for comment.
The Hungarian Integrity Authority, which was founded in 2022 as part of reforms pushed by Brussels, monitors the spending and security of EU funds. It is independent of the government and will likely be responsible for helping dismantle the crony networks created during the Orbán years that stretch across everything from construction to utilities and the media. Biró has been in charge of the watchdog since it was launched.
According to the watchdog, three companies were awarded a majority of government contracts to provide goods and services, with the amount charged for these contracts artificially inflated. Biró said the government spent around €10 billion with these three firms over the past four years. He did not name the companies involved.
“The overpricing, what we believe to be subject to corruption risk … would be €3.5 billion,” he said, adding that the public procurement tenders were “manipulated” and basic items were charged at several times the market rate. Under the previous government, the Hungarian state “became the largest entity on the market,” he said.
Magyar, who was sworn into office in May following a landslide election victory a month earlier, has repeatedly accused his predecessor of corruption.
The Hungarian government did not respond to requests for comment.