Leading Hungarian NGOs call for local government transparency

Four anti-corruption NGOs (Átlátszó, K-Monitor, Political Capital and Transparency International Hungary) are calling on local government candidates to sign an undertaking stating that, if they are elected, they will improve the transparency of local government.

The four steps which the candidates would commit to are:

• the local government budget is made available on its website and is easily understandable;
• agendas, related proposals and minutes of council meetings and general sittings are made available on the local government websites in a digitally searchable format;
• contracts concluded by the local government, its institutions or its companies, are made available on the local government website, as well as a full digitally searchable list;
• asset declarations of each council member, mayor, deputy mayor and each top-level official of related companies are available on the local government website.

Some of these steps are legal obligations, but are still missing from local government practice. The rest, although legally not required, would increase transparency without additional costs. The list of candidates who have signed the undertaking so far can be found on the website.

193 candidates had signed the initiative by the closing of the polls; 43 of them received a mandate, one of them has been elected mayor. In almost all districts of Budapest there will be at least one delegate who has signed the initiative, and at least one signature from each party in the Parliament.

The organisers thank all signatories for their support and congratulate the elected delegates, who will be contacted soon in order to start to put in place concrete steps towards greater transparency. At the beginning of next year, after 100 days in office, the organisers will evaluate the achievements. The website ezaminimum.hu remains open for further signatures from mayors and delegates.

Translated by Anikó Mészáros