BKV case: the accusation is unrealistic

BKV case: the accusation is unrealistic

The former leader of the administration (Szalai László) of the former CEO Aba Botond, didn’t admit his guiltiness with the signing of the contracts, and he is the XI. accused in the BKV case. On the Kecskemét Court today Szalai László in his testimony draws attention to the unpunctuality in the indictment, for example with the paradox in the dates.

For example from the 4 contracts which is in the indictment, 3 was signed in 2006, when the so called leaders of the criminal organization wasn’t even near to the BKV, moreover, the main defendant, Hagyó Miklós wasn’t even the deputy lord mayor.

According to Szalai, he said that one of the parts of the indictment which is talking about the BKV’s economics situation is wrong and unrealistic. The indictment said that in the time of the contract signing the company had 100 billion miss.  Szalai said that the miss wasn’t even near to this amount, it was around 70 billion. „The BKV is not disadvantages, it’s under finance” – he said, and he explained that the public transportation is nowhere in the world be in the black/blue-chip, the ticket prices do not cover their expense, so the „damage” is depends – in this case it’s depends on the capital’s local government – on the finance inclination of the owner. Still, in the time of Hagyó the BKV (and the prosecution admitted this too) was working 10 billion forint cheaper than before.

(The source of the photo: 168 Óra Online)

Similar to the other defendant, Szalai has no idea either why there were accused with contracts which had been „alive” before them, and today it’s still alive/working with the new driving of the city. In his observation Hagyó said that „if we sign the contracts for the same action with the same company in the same amount it would still be a crime, but if the today driving of the city does it, it’s not.”

Beside Hagyó, the other defendants made their observations too, and they all agreed with Szalai’s professional reasoning and that the indictment is unrealistic. Lelovics Ottó, the press person of Hagyó still said that the contracts were needed and reasonable. He was incomprehension with the fact that if they committed a crime, then why they didn’t question the other leaders of the BKV, who, before and still sign similar/same contracts.

(Article of Népszava)

Original:

BKV-per: megalapozatlan a vád

Címkék: bkv per kecskemét hagyó miklós lelovics ottó szalai lászló | Szerző: Hagyó Dosszié | 4:59 pm

Nem ismerte el bűnösségét a terhére rótt szerződések megkötésében a BKV-per 11. rendű vádlottja, Aba Botond volt vezérigazgató egykori kabinetvezetője. A Kecskeméti Törvényszéken zajló büntetőeljárás során mai vallomásában Szalai László felhívta a figyelmet a vádirat pontatlanságaira, például a dátumok közti ellentmondásokra.

A vádiratban közölt négy szerződésből hármat például még 2006-ban kötöttek meg, amikor a bűnszervezet vélt vezetői még a BKV közelében sem voltak, sőt a fő vádlott Hagyó Miklós sem volt még főpolgármester-helyettes.

Szalai szerint téves és megalapozatlan a vádnak a BKV gazdasági helyzetével foglalkozó része is. A vádirat ugyanis megállapítja, hogy a szerződések megkötése idején a cég százmilliárdos hiányt görgetett maga előtt. Szalai elmondta, hogy a hiány ezt az összeget meg sem közelítette, 70 milliárd körüli volt. "A BKV nem veszteséges, hanem alulfinanszírozott" - mondta, kifejtve, hogy a közösségi közlekedés sehol a világon nem nyereséges, költségeit a jegyárak nem fedezik, így a "veszteség" a tulajdonos - ez esetben a fővárosi önkormányzat - finanszírozási hajlandóságán múlik. Mégis, Hagyóék alatt a BKV az ügyészség által is elismerten 10 milliárd forinttal olcsóbban működött, mint korábban.

(A fotó forrása: 168 Óra Online)

A többi vádlotthoz hasonlóan Szalai szerint sem érthető, hogy miért vádolták meg őket olyan szerződések megkötése miatt, amelyek előttük is éltek, és ma, az új városvezetés idején is fennállnak. Észrevételében Hagyó úgy fogalmazott, hogy "ha ugyanakkora összegben, ugyanarra a tevékenységre, ugyanazzal a céggel mi kötünk szerződést, az bűncselekmény, ha a mostani városvezetés, az nem". 

Hagyón kívül több vádlott is megtette észrevételeit, és mind egyetértettek Szalai szakmai érvelésével a vád megalapozatlanságát illetően. Lelovics Ottó, Hagyó egykori sajtósa a marketingszerződéseket ismét szükségesnek és indokoltnak nevezte. Értetlenségének adott hangot amiatt, hogy amennyiben ők bűnt követtek el, miért nem hallgatták meg azokat a BKV-vezetőket, akik korábban, illetve azóta hasonló szerződéseket kötöttek.

(A Népszava cikke)

November 29th Hearing: ‘The Accusations Are Unrealistic’

On Thursday, November 29^th, 2012 the trial of the Budapest Public Transport Company (BKV) reconvened in the city of Kecskemét, Hungary.  This time the eleventh defendant, Mr. László Szalai, followed suit by claiming innocence from all appropriate charges.  Szalai, who began working at BKV in 1987 and had climbed the managerial ladder to become the head of the corporate development division in 2007, is charged with assisting in the alleged criminal organization by signing off on contracts which were financially detrimental to the public company. 

The former high level manager claimed, however, that the basis of the accusations against him and the other defendants are not realistic.  According to him, one needs to only look at the timeline of events. 

For example, he explained, of the four contracts under investigation three were signed in 2006.  The significance of that being that according to the formal indictment the so-called “criminal organization” that was operated by the BKV upper management and overseen by Miklós Hagyó was not even active at that time.  As Szalai reminded the court, the indictment lists the time period of the alleged criminal activities to have occurred from January 2007 until August 2008.  At that time in 2008, Zsolt Balogh, the fourth defendant and who served as interim CEO of BKV, was replaced by Dr. István Kocsis.

Szalai went on in his effort to disprove details in the indictment.  This time, his target was the described financial situation of the public transport company.  As listed within the formal charges, BKV was indebted approximately 100 billion forint (a little more than 451 million USD at time of writing [ATW]).  According to the defendant, the debt was actually closer to 70 billion forint (approximately $316 million ATW) – still a significant amount.  The problems were not coming from annual losses, though, stated Szalai.  Instead, he insisted, BKV was perpetually “under-funded.”

Szalai also pointed out to the court that under the supervision of Miklós Hagyó, BKV was operating at around 10 billion forint under the annual budgets.  That is a fact which the prosecution has also acknowledged. 

Once again returning to the contracts, Szalai stated that he had no idea why he, Hagyó, and the others were being accused of forcing these contracts – which he noted weren’t negatively affecting the company – when the they were already “active” once the Hagyó administration took the reins.


Source: http://thehagyocase.wordpress.com/2012/12/31/november-29th-hearing-the-accusations-are-unrealistic/