A fortune for a presentation – government audit of Student Loan Center’s contracts concluded under Péter Magyar revealed

Opposition party leader Péter Magyar, formerly the head of the national Student Loan Center (DHK) previously claimed that during his tenure he had to sign overpriced contracts with known oligarchs and that the government later pressured him with an audit. Átlátszó optained and published a full copy of the Government Audit Bureau’s report, which notes several irregularities. Among others, the report cites a study written for 275 USD per page and a presentation with 18 slides for which DHK paid 12,000 USD.

Péter Magyar, ex-husband of the disgraced Minister of Justice Judit Varga became a high-profile public figure earlier this year after giving an interview to the online TV Partizán. In the interview, Magyar said that he quit his lucrative position as the director of the Student Loan Center (DHK) due to the corruption he encountered. Namely, because he was made to sign overpriced, low-quality contracts with companies with ties to the Orbán Government.

Magyar also claimed that the Government Audit Bureau (KEHI) launched an investigation against his DHK around the time his marriage to Judit Varga started falling apart. Magyar recalled that he was first called into the Prime Minister’s office where he was pressured to try to settle the problems with his wife, after which, he was threatened, and this included an unscheduled inspection of the Student Loan Centre by KEHI.

Audit found substantive issues

Founded in 2001, the state-owned Student Loan Centre Ltd (DHK) is responsible for operating the student loan system: it provides loans at low interest to students in higher education.In 2020, the monthly salary of its senior staff was already close to 3300 USD, while the CEO’s salary was over 9600 USD.

Although Magyar claimed that the audit was merely and intimidation tactic that resulted with no findings, the KEHI report  obtained by Átlátszó contradicts this.

KEHI examined in detail a total of 52 contracts worth a total of 3,85 million USD between 2018 and 2020. And although the simple procurement procedures below the public procurement threshold were carried out in accordance with the law (the KEHI does not mention public procurement), the Bureau’s view is that in several contracts were overpriced, or there was no real competition.

Overpriced contracts and a shell company

Several companies highlighted in the report have political connections: one company, Think&Thank Ltd. is connected to a person who is now working with Péter Magyar’s new opposition party, TISZA Párt. The company is owned by Kondorkó POD Ltd., whose managing director is Balázs Trentin, who coordinated the new party’s activist in the summer of 2024.

Another company mentioned in the report is MESTINT Ltd., which belongs to Dr. Károly Bozsonyi, Research Director of the pro-government think-tank Centre for Fundamental Rights, who is also a regular contributor to government media.

Yet another company is PlanB Ltd., which also provided communication advice to Péter Magyar’s ex-wife and then-minister Judit Varga.

In 2016, the the company’s director was Márton Woth who founded the Youth Chapter of the governing Fidesz party in 2005 with Gergő Gulyás and Dániel Loppert.

According to KEHI, the following problems were found with contracts between the listed companies:

Think&Thank Ltd.’s contact was reported to be overpriced, as the company did not do much beyond Facebook posts and other less resource-intensive tasks for over 40.000 USD. MESTINT Ltd, which was contracted for polling was also overpaid: the report claims that the two polls they conducted for over over 73,000 USD could have been done for 11,000.

PlanB Ltd was contracted in consortium with another company that last filed its accounts in 2002 and showed no signs of life (and has since ceased to exist).

Moreover, PlanB was overly expensive: a 40-page study on Generation Z – of dubious quality – cost 11000 USD. In another case it charged 12,000 USD for a presentation of 18 slides. It also completed a tree planting project for over 40,000USD that could have been completed from 1400 USD.

Just an opinion

Átlátszó has asked KEHI about the Student Loan Center’s contracts, but they refused to answer until Wendsday, when Átlátszó first published parts of the previously undisclosed report. In a statement,

they described the report as an „opinion” that was prepared in an „advisory role” that a government decree assigned them at the time

– in short, they made no steps to remedy the suspicious spending.

After KEHI’s statement, the Hungarian Development Bank (MFB) also gave a sign of life and announced that the audit was the reason they did not extend Péter Magyar’s mandate of director of the student loan company. This, however, contradicts their previous statements. When Magyar’s mandate ended in 2022, MFB’s tatenement said that „he is leaving the company by mutual agreement on his own initiative.” In fact, MFB even stressed in its statement that “the departing director has completed an extremely successful period.” Moreover, Magyar only quit his position in february 2022, six months after the KEHI audit was written.