1 December 2022, Budapest – A radical „whitening” of public procurement procedures and the fight against corruption is underway, the Hungarian Competition Authority said at a conference in Budapest. At the event, the GVH presented the first volume of its new series of reference books on the relationship between public procurement and competition law. The event also featured speeches by Tibor Navracsics, Minister for Regional Development, Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the GVH and László Kovács, President of the Public Procurement Authority.
On 1 December 2022, the Hungarian Competition Authority (Gazdasági Versenyhivatal – GVH) presented the first volume of its new series of books entitled „Competition Mirror Books”, with the title „Public Procurement and Competition Law”, at a conference. The event opened with a speech by Tibor Navracsics, Minister for Regional Development, followed by presentations by Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the Hungarian Competition Authority, and László Kovács, President of the Public Procurement Authority, on the results of recent achievements in the field of competition in the market and fairness in public procurement.
In his opening speech, Tibor Navracsics stressed that „We have fulfilled all our commitments to Brussels on time and will continue to do so in the future. Our ambition is to become one of the most transparent states in the European Union in all aspects of public procurement procedures.” - underlined the Minister for Regional Development.”
In his presentation, Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the Hungarian Competition Authority, stressed the importance of cooperation between different authorities. Summing up the GVH's achievements, he said, „In the past two years, we have fined public procurement cartelists around HUF 2 billion. We are working to continue our effective cartel investigations in the future. It is also important to leave no loopholes for infringing undertakings, as this is the only way to ensure fair economic competition. The GVH protects consumers and helps businesses that want to comply with the law”, said Csaba Balázs Rigó, President of the GVH.
"It is in our common interest that there are adequate safeguards to protect the fairness of competition, that public money is spent rationally and efficiently, and that it is used in a transparent and verifiable way. This is why we are committed to prevention and control”, said Dr. László Kovács, President of the Public Procurement Authority. He added that they hope to encourage both contracting authorities and tenderers to behave in accordance with the law through consistent and rigorous application of the law, knowledge sharing, publication of guides and guidance material.
In the second half of the conference, experts in public procurement and competition law discussed the links between the two areas of law and the main issues of application of competition law in public procurement procedures.
The book "Public Procurement and Competition Law", edited by András Tóth, Deputy Chairman of the GVH and President of the Competition Council, is available electronically on the website of the Hungarian Competition Authority:
GVH Sajtóiroda
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