The Budapest Police Headquarters has opened an investigation into contracts involving Dolomit Kft, a quarrying company controlled by Győző Orbán, father of former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, and V-Híd Zrt, an infrastructure company belonging to businessman Lőrinc Mészáros.
Police are investigating suspected breach of trust after questions were raised over the prices paid for stone used in major infrastructure projects. The police investigation was confirmed after questions were submitted to the Budapest authorities.
The inquiry concerns claims that Dolomit supplied construction material to V-Híd at prices substantially above those listed publicly by the quarry company.
Former independent MP Ákos Hadházy published documents in June which he said showed that V-Híd had agreed to pay 6,940 forints per tonne, excluding VAT, for crushed stone supplied by Dolomit. According to the company’s publicly available price list cited in the reporting, the equivalent material was listed at 3,175 forints per tonne.
Those figures form part of the evidence that prompted scrutiny, but do not by themselves establish that the transactions were improperly priced. Commercial contracts can differ from published price lists because of specifications, quantities, transport arrangements and other contractual conditions.
Győző Orbán has denied wrongdoing. He previously said that his company complied with Hungarian law and supplied customers reliably and under equal conditions.
M1 motorway project
The contracts have attracted attention because stone from Dolomit’s quarry at Gánt has been supplied to the expansion of Hungary’s M1 motorway.
Earlier this year, journalists documented trucks travelling between the quarry and construction sites on the motorway. The project involves widening approximately 78 kilometres of the M1 and is expected to continue until 2029. Its total cost has been estimated at about 800 billion forints.
Hungary granted the motorway concession to MKIF Magyar Koncessziós Infrastruktúra Fejlesztő Zrt, which is associated with the business interests of Mészáros and László Szíjj. V-Híd is carrying out construction work with subcontractors.
MKIF has said that it does not itself purchase construction materials, including stone, because procurement is handled by the contractors. V-Híd previously said it obtained materials from several suppliers, taking technical and economic considerations into account.
The investigation was initiated following a complaint from Transparency International Hungary rather than directly from Hadházy.
Miklós Ligeti, the organisation’s legal director, filed a complaint against an unknown perpetrator after Hadházy published the contracts. Ligeti acknowledged that invoices and other information would be required to determine whether overpricing had actually occurred.
His argument was that, if materials had been purchased with public money at unjustifiably above-market prices, the difference could represent a loss to public assets. The prosecutor’s office subsequently transferred the case to the Budapest police, which ordered an investigation.
According to Hungarian reporting, Dolomit recorded revenue of 5.96 billion forints last year, of which about 4.8 billion forints was associated with its V-Híd contract connected to the M1 project.
Investigation comes after change of government
The case is unfolding in a different political environment from the one in which the motorway contracts were concluded.
Orbán lost power after 16 years when Péter Magyar’s Tisza party won Hungary’s parliamentary election on 12 April. Magyar was sworn in as prime minister on 9 May after campaigning partly on changes to Hungary’s system of public procurement and state asset management.
The new government has since introduced a broader anti-corruption programme. In July it proposed a National Asset Protection and Recovery Office with powers to identify and seek the return of assets unlawfully removed from public ownership and to examine the management of state property.
The initiative formed part of measures connected with Hungary’s efforts to restore access to EU money that had been withheld over rule-of-law and corruption concerns. Budapest has also moved to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, while the European Commission has agreed to release billions of euros in previously suspended recovery and cohesion funding following reforms by the new government.
The investigation into Dolomit and V-Híd remains at an early stage. The opening of a criminal investigation establishes neither that the contracts were overpriced nor that Győző Orbán, Mészáros or any other individual committed an offence. Its immediate purpose is to determine whether the pricing and financing of the transactions provide grounds for further criminal proceedings.
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