Anti-corruption NGO Transparency International has finally won access to files that show massive overpayment by the Hungarian government for ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic, often to companies linked to businesses close to the ruling Fidesz party that subsequently put themselves into liquidation.

The Kuria, Hungary’s top court, recently ruled in favour of Transparency International Hungary and forced the government to release data on the purchase of more than 17,000 ventilators during the pandemic. The NGO had fought for more than two years to make the data public. 

Countries were scrambling to acquire ventilators after the pandemic broke out in March 2020. At that time, Hungarian hospitals had 2,000 ventilators. Under the most pessimistic scenario, experts estimated that a maximum of 8,500 machines would be needed. They warned that even if the country acquired that many ventilators, there would not be enough specialists to operate more than 2,500 at once.

The government arranged the purchases through intermediaries connected to businessmen close to the government. This complex network of companies reaped huge profits, and then the companies were later dissolved, giving rise to suspicions of corruption.

Hungarian authorities turned a blind eye to the staggeringly overpriced purchase of ventilators and to the future of the companies involved in the deals. Hungary ended up paying an average of HUF20mnn per unit for the total fleet of 17,000 ventilators, whereas the European Commission's procurement averaged HUF4.0mn per piece.

Under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hungary has become one of the most corrupt countries in Europe. Rampant corruption is one of the reasons the European Commission has halted EU aid payments, until the government can show it is serious about tackling graft.

Documents provided by the interior ministry confirm that the government failed to sell on a single unit of ventilators bought for more than HUF300bn (€800mn) in 2020 and 2021. The machines are gathering dust in state warehouses, costing hundreds of millions of forints each month.

One of these supplier companies, GR Technologies, dissolved in 2021, owned by a Malaysian businessman Datuk Vinod Sekhar, was the largest supplier of medical equipment. His company GR Technologies sold 7,000 ventilators to Hungary for HUF176bn. The price per unit exceeded the EU average by some six-fold. The businessman bought a private jet and a luxury yacht from the profit and his company went into liquidation a year after the transaction, according to local media.

According to documents from TI,  money was not transferred to GR Technologies by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but to various bank accounts in Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Sekhar was prosecuted in his home country on suspicion of money laundering.

Over the last two years, opposition parties and investigative journalists have also fought battles with the bureaucracy to have more documents released regarding the acquisition of medical equipment, like masks or ventilators during the pandemic. 

Out of the blue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced earlier this year that they had destroyed some of the relevant documents just 20 months after the procurement.