December 13th, 2012 Hearing: the 13th Defendant Supports BKV’s Strategy to Cut Loses

On Thursday, December 13^th, 2012 the trial of the Budapest Public Transport Company (BKV) saw the year’s final hearing in Kecskemét, Hungary.

The subject of the hearing was another allegedly conspicuous contract between DAM Lp. and BKV which was created on October 1^st, 2007.  Apparently, BKV was trying to come up with a solution which would stop people from using the public transportation system without paying for tickets.  As such, they employed DAM to conduct a study about youngsters’ attitudes toward corporate communication.  The contract between DAM and BKV was determined to be 250,000 forints per month before taxes (just more than $1,100.00 at time of writing [ATW]).  The contract was canceled on June 15, 2009.

DAM representative and the 13th defendant in the BKV trial, Dr. Zsuzsanna Mecsér Kovács claimed in court on the 13^th that the contract between her company and BKV was necessary.

Mecsér is accused of acting as an accomplice in a criminal organization by aiding in the misappropriation of public funds.  According to the indictment, she caused BKV damages totaling 5,700,000 forints (almost $26,000.00 ATW).

Mecsér claims that DAM’s work for BKV was effective and transparent while the prosecution, however, asserted that the work’s paper trail is incomplete and lacking transparency.  Luckily for the defendant, though, the judge claimed to find no basis for the prosecutions assertions.

In reaction to Mecsér’s testimony, Attila Antal, who was the former CEO of BKV, claimed that because of certain strategies such as the contract with DAM the public transport company cut their losses by 11 billion forint under his leadership (nearly $50,000,000.00 ATW).

Following Antal’s lead, the former deputy CEO Miklós Regőczi cited a document which claims that BKV still employs strategies such as the DAM contract to ensure customers pay for tickets.  Regőczi also noted that today, however, these strategies are not tried as a crime.


Source: http://thehagyocase.wordpress.com/