Today is International Anti-Corruption Day, on the occasion of which Transparency International Hungary (TI) is organizing a festival on the A38 Ship. In the evening, following the conference, TÁP Theater will perform a play dealing with corruption, after which visitors can enjoy a free concert by Mary PopKids.

So we are engaging everyone and we welcome everyone. Because that is the point of International Anti-Corruption Day ­— we want to show as many people as possible that we must fight corruption.

International Anti-Corruption Day is held on December 9 each year to commemorate the date the United Nations Convention Against Corruption entered into effect in December 2005, while this is the sixth year that Transparency International Hungary organizes the “Átláccó” (Transparent) Festival.

In the early afternoon a conference will be held from 3 p.m. with the title of “Everything there is to know about corruption,” where speeches will be held by Lieselore Cyrus, Germany’s ambassador to  Hungary, Roland Galharague, the French ambassador, and Norwegian ambassador Tove Skarstein. Participating in the Átláccó festival’s panel discussions will be among others Gajus Scheltema, the Dutch ambassador to Budapest; Zoltán Bolcsik, the director-general of the National Protective Service; Zsuzsa Beke, head of PR and public affairs at Richter Gedeon Nyrt; István Kutas, director of corporate communications at Telenor; Pál Sinku, prosecutor and department head at the Chief Prosecutor’s Office; and Szabolcs Kékedi, deputy head of department at the National Judicial Office.

The results of the recently published Corruption Perceptions Index indicate that Hungary remains a very corrupt country and is slipping further and further in both a European Union and a regional comparison. Many government decisions are completely intransparent and the state has in recent years methodically eliminated the institutions that would be able to limit and control the government’s power. “The key is in all of our hands: we have to make the political elite recognize that it should establish a transparent and inclusive institutional system that serves not the enrichment of certain interest groups but that of each and every citizen,” says József Péter Martin, the executive director of TI Hungary.

At the conference to be held as part of the festival, representatives of state institutions will talk about anti-corruption measures: we will hear about the experiences the judicial branch, the prosecutor’s office and the police have had in this regard. Areas that provide opportunities for corruption will also be discussed, such as the so-called revolving-door effect, the system of asset declarations, as well as adhering to conflict of interest rules.

The second section of the conference will focus on the business sector, with participants talking about the changing tools of lobbying. Lack of regulation and the unprecedented concentration of power have both contributed to hidden, “unorthodox” forums of lobbying being established in Hungary, such as the strategic agreements formed between the government and corporations. As TI’s earlier study showed, the government arbitrarily differentiates between market players through these agreements, which are of a political and communications nature.

How did the roulette wheel trump school kids? Competition on lobbying.

TI and 444 previously announced a joint competition on lobbying, which received close to 100 submitted exciting stories. We wanted to know what kind of lobbying-related corruption stories citizens could tell us. Both made-up and real stories could be submitted at the competition, and we were not disappointed. The top four entrants all described shocking — and real — stories. These included a story about how a casino was more important than the integrated education of children with Down syndrome, or on how a corrupt auction for a forested area is held in Hungary today. We can also learn how many years a company can conduct illegal environmental pollution activities, as well as why a 4 km stretch of bicycle path can cost HUF 280 million.

The goal of the organizers with the competition was to call attention to the fact that, albeit lobbying in itself is not a crime, it is conducted in Hungary today in an intransparent manner, and at the end of the process, as the stories on lobbying show, individual or group interests often supersede the public good.

Using the stories submitted, the TÁP alternative theater company has created a play that will make its premiere at the Átláccó festival.

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