Hungarian Ministry files reports over 3 billion forint procurement irregularities

The Hungarian Ministry of Science and Technology has filed reports against two companies, Lounge Event Kft. and p2m Consulting Kft., regarding irregularities involving more than 3 billion forints in public funds.

Zoltán Tanács, the ministry's head, described a recurring pattern of suspicious operations including pre-selected participants, centralized procurement, single-bidder procedures, and nearly exhausted budget frameworks. The ministry noted that the services often featured vague results and unjustifiable pricing.

Specifically regarding p2m Consulting Kft., Tanács highlighted that while the company's annual revenue was below 200 million forints prior to 2019, it secured a 30 billion forint framework contract from the National Communications Authority in late 2020 following a tender with a submission period of only a few days. The ministry reported that the company became a dominant player in the consulting and organizational development market through these contracts, even as actual tasks were performed by previous market actors. Documentation also revealed instances where high-level managers were billed at rates exceeding 58,000 forints per hour, and cases where documents appeared to be prepared by entities not listed in the original contracts.