Hungarian Minister Sacked Over Scandal

The Free Democrats said a potential threat to their coalition with the majority socialists had been partly removed with the sacking on Sunday of industry and trade minister Tamas Suchman, a close ally of socialist Prime Minister Gyula Horn.

We dont say that the case is closed but it is a minimal requirement that the minister who is responsible cannot remain in office, Ivan Peto, president of the Free Democrats, said.

But Peto said his party still had serious concerns about conflict of interest within the government.

This is a very serious situation and we have very serious disagreements about this, he said. It could cause big tensions in the future.

 

Suchman had been the only high official of privatisation agency APV Rt spared on Friday when the government sacked all members of APVs executive and supervisory boards in a scandal over payments amounting to more than 800 million forints ($5.2 million) to consultant Marta Tocsik.

Tocsik was negotiating on behalf of the government with municipalities for compensation for land used by state-owned companies. She received a percentage of savings she made for the government, but her contract was irregular because it was awarded without competitive bidding, government officials said.

Horn said on Sunday he was reluctantly sacking Suchman, effective October 15. Horn only last month awarded Suchman the industry and trade ministry, on top of his role at APV.

It was very difficult for me to make this decision, Horn told Hungarian television. No one doubts Suchmans integrity and his merits in privatisation and government. From this point of view, his dismissal is unfair, but he should also take responsibility.

Opposition parties, which brought to light the payments to Tocsik, continued to attack the government over its handling of the scandal, the biggest to rock the socialist-led government since it took power in 1994.

Its all very well that Suchman has been sacked but his dismissal doesnt mean that his exact responsibility has been established and this is something that must be done, said Tamas Deutsch, deputy president of the opposition Fidesz party.

Deutsch said Horn bore some responsibility for the scandal, since he received documents forwarded to him from the APVs supervisory board.

Hes also responsible in that capacity, Deutsch said.

He added that the scandal had finally come to a head after Fidesz and other opposition parties made allegations that the government was not doing enough to fight corruption.

We received a very harsh reply from the governing parties, Deutsch said. They said we should come up with concrete evidence and so thats what we did.

Suchman has made no statement on his dismissal while Tocsik, in an interview with Nepszava newspaper, said she had done nothing illegal.

Speculation was already focusing on who would replace Suchman and one of the leading candidates appeared to be former labour federation chief Sandor Nagy.