The case of Vértesi Power Plant: the Contracts of the State Enterprise in Liquidation are Public
In pursuance of the decision of the Municipal Court of Tatabánya, the indirectly state-owned Vértesi Power Plant Co. is obliged to hand over its contracts with System Consulting Co. from 2008, the documents of the internal inquisition carried out in the case of privatization and power trading of System Consulting Co., substantiating the damage suits and criminal accusation of Vértesi Power Plant in the spring of 2009, and the figures in connection with the costs of the internal inquisition to Tamás Bodoky, journalist, represented by HCLU.
Vértesi Power Plant Co. owes hundreds of billions of forints to those energy traders with whom it took up capacities commissioned by System Consulting Co.
System, owned by László Kapolyi, former MP for the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSzP) desisted from buying Vértesi Power Plant Co., almost bankrupting the state enterprise.
In its reasoning the court stated that the owner of the defendant, Vértesi Power Plant, is MVM Co. (Hungarian Electricity Works Co.), operating in permanent state ownership, and according to the right interpretation of the law the same rules of the law on state owned enterprises should be applied for indirectly state-owned business enterprises, “since otherwise the rules of the law of data protection could easily be evaded by outsourcing state wealth into state-owned business enterprises.”
The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) provided legal representation in the case.
„It is of high public interest that citizens could learn the details of the deal including political links, as a consequence of which a renowned state enterprise has been dirven to the verge of bankruptcy.” – commented the decision Tivadar Hüttl, the head of the Data Protection Program of HCLU.
