Public Procurement Controls in Hungary

Abstract

Hungary has established a specific control system for public procurements funded from EU funds. The necessity to conform to the requirements of the control body as well as public procurement legislation often causes delays and affects the decisions of public authorities. The aim of the article is to show how the controls related to EU funded public procurements work in Hungary and to see how it might affect public authorities. The article introduces the features of the system and provides an analysis of data from the relevant bodies to see the challenges related to the control system. The results show that even though there seems to be some positive impact on the regularity of procedures, the delays and the interference in the decisions of contracting authorities is problematic. It would be advisable to streamline the control process such as through checks based on samples or focusing on the riskiest procedures.