At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, led by Péter Szijjártó, began signing procurement contracts en masse: thousands of ventilators were purchased from newly established or repurposed intermediaries. According to an article published by 444.hu in the late summer of 2020, the ministry alone procured at least 16,000 devices, with more arriving through other channels.
The portion of the venture attributable to Szijjártó’s team cost more than 300 billion forints, even though it was already evident at the time that much of the purchase would be a waste of money:
no matter the masses of purchased machines, only a fraction could be used due to a lack of trained personnel and infrastructure,
while the ministry paid a world-record price for the devices,
and later on, it even emerged that some shipments were not suited for life-saving treatment on COVID patients in critical condition.
The ventilator deals generated billions in profits for certain companies, but the trajectory of some of these firms has taken surprising turns. One of the largest suppliers to the ministry, Fourcardinal Ltd. – shown to be linked through personal ties to Viktor Orbán’s chief advisor – reported nearly 16 billion forints in profit in 2020, yet a year and a half later, the company underwent liquidation. Similarly, OTT One Inc., formerly traded on the Budapest Stock Exchange, collapsed shortly afterwards despite the lucrative contracts, as the abundant revenues failed to materialise as profit within the company. Instead of plentiful dividends for shareholders, the firm eventually faced compulsory liquidation and lawsuits from small investors. Although TMT Technics Ltd. did experience a sudden profit spike due to securing orders worth four billion forints, the firm’s story did not meet a happy end, and is currently also undergoing liquidation. As it was later revealed, their ventilators were still in customs warehouses years after the pandemic’s onset. TMT failed to account for advance payments to the Ministry, while liquidators couldn’t manage to auction off the remaining stockpiles in early 2023, despite offering a price as low as 13,000 HUF per unit.
The threads of the ventilator business remain unresolved, and they are unlikely to be tied up, as the ministry destroyed some of the documents related to ventilator procurements from March 2020 within 20 months of the affair. For context, the Gödöllő warehouse alone houses 12,000 devices collecting dust. A batch is occasionally donated abroad, and more recently it has been suggested that the ventilators may be used for treating patients with severe sleep disorders.
The attorney who had brought the clemency scandal to light has recently raised the issue of foreign affairs procurement related to the coronavirus pandemic on his Facebook page. If the matter resurfaces following a change in government, “our friend Tamás Menczer will have the opportunity to prove that he is a man indeed who takes responsibility for his actions” – the attorney noted, referencing both the infamous verbal altercation between Menczer and Péter Magyar outside a children’s home in Pécs, as well as the fact that as a foreign secretary, the communications director of Fidesz-KDNP was probably in the thick of the ventilator deals.
As a former decision-maker, he will surely be implicated in these proceedings. The only questions is whether as a witness or a suspect
– remarked the attorney, adding that mismanagement causing significant financial loss is punishable for up to 10 years as per the statute of limitations, or 20 years if the crime was committed as part of an organised group.
BALOGH ZOLTÁN / MTI Tamás Menczer and Ildikó Horváth, the State Secretary for Health at the Ministry of Human Resources, at the handover of ventilators donated to the Czech Republic in Gödöllő on October 25, 2020.
It is a fact that Tamás Menczer’s name appears in the contracts for ventilator procurements concluded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The contracts in question are the ones released in response to 444.hu’s data request in late summer 2020. On the buyer’s side, these Hungarian-language uniform documents were mostly signed by then-administrative state secretary Csaba Balogh, while the task of issuing performance certifications fell under the purview of Menczer, also a state secretary at the time.
According to the contracts, the seller had to provide a delivery note to the buyer’s representative after the handover. Although the ministry’s representative was consistently redacted from the copies of the contracts provided to 444.hu, the rest of the text clearly points to Menczer, as the documents specify that whoever had issued the delivery note was required to provide a performance certification within five days.
Issuing performance certifications is within the scope of authority of Tamás Menczer, or in case of his absence, a person authorised by him in writing
– the contracts state repeatedly.
In light of this, Menczer played a key role in the receipt of the ventilators. He was responsible for ensuring that the shipment complied with the contractual conditions. If any conditions were unmet, he could have refused to accept the devices.
From the document package published by 444.hu,
KOSZTICSÁK SZILÁRD / MTI Equipment needed for protection against the coronavirus pandemic being unloaded from an airplane at Liszt Ferenc Airport on April 24, 2020.
Contracts Featuring Tamás Menczer’s Name:
April 3, 2020: A contract with Európa Ázsia Ltd. for 530 invasive ventilators. After additional orders and modifications, the company delivered 940 ventilators for nearly $51 million, according to 444.hu. “Delivery location: a previously agreed upon airport in Shanghai or Beijing, China.”
April 9, 2020: 200 ventilators were purchased from SCA Medical Ltd. for $5.8 million. Delivery location: Shanghai.
April 15, 2020: After modifications, the $41 million contract signed with Medirex covered not only ventilators but also protective equipment and masks.
April 16, 2020: An agreement with Celitron Ltd. for 1,000 Panther 5 ventilators at a cost of €29 million. Delivery location: Hungary.
April 17, 2020: 50 ventilators worth $3 million, purchased from Limitless Medical Ltd. Delivery location: Budapest Airport, customs warehouse.
April 20, 2020: A contract with Fourcardinal for 1,000 ventilators at a total cost of €48.1 million. Delivery location: Beijing customs warehouse.
April 22, 2020: A second contract with Limitless Medical for 70 ventilators worth $4 million. Delivery location: Budapest Airport, customs warehouse.
We posed questions for Tamás Menczer, inquiring:
How many ventilator shipments did he issue performance certifications for, and how many ventilators arrived in Hungary with his involvement?
Did he personally issue the performance certifications? If not, to whom did he delegate this task?
How much time did he spend in China managing ventilator-related matters?
Did he ever reject a shipment of ventilators, and how often did shipments fail to meet contractual conditions?
To our inquires submitted on Thursday, December 5, the Fidesz press office replied on Monday, December 9, stating “Communications Director Tamás Menczer is looking forward to seeing you at the press conference to be held before the Polgári est (“civic evening”) event in Nagykanizsa, today at 17 p.m.” Instead of quickly hopping into a car in the hopes of making it into Zala County in time – to receive answers to our questions posed days earlier in writing and in need of factual answers – we requested a written response. Tamás Menczer has not yet reacted.
The post Documents reveal Tamás Menczer’s responsibility in verifying the compliance of Chinese ventilators procured during the COVID-pandemic first appeared on 24.hu.
