Company goes bankrupt after getting hundreds of millions in public funding, leaving behind unroofed swimming pools

Although they were given hundreds of millions of forints by the state, a construction company failed to finish two swimming pools in Western Hungary. For the full price of 800 million and 900 million HUFs, Octopus Invest Kft. completed 40 and 25 percent of its projects, which will now cost extra for the government.

The story of Mosonmagyaróvár and Csorna, two towns in Győr-Moson-Sopron county, Western Hungary, is not unique. Years ago, the government promised the constructions of 57 swimming pools (for use by schools and amateur sports organizations). However, according to the Ministry of Construction and Transport, 20 installations have not been completed to date.

Octopus Invest Kft. has undertaken the construction of the Mosonmagyaróvár swimming pool for a net amount of HUF 788 million (2 million USD) in 2020. It was supposed to be finished in 2022, but construction was delayed, then stopped completely last year and the contractor pulled out of the site – with only 40 percent of the building finished. The government is now spending extra money: in a new public tender, another company has agreed to complete the school for a net cost of 588 million forints. The total cost will therefore be nearly HUF 1.5 billion, unless it becomes more expensive in the meantime.

In Csorna, near Mosonmagyaróvár, Octopus Invest Kft. also won the contract to build the swimming pool in 2021, with a net bid of HUF 909.5 million (2.36 million USD). But even there, it did not finish the work and withdrew from the site, leaving the building only 25 percent complete. The government recently put out a new public tender for the same project and awarded a contract to another company to complete the Csorna school for a net price of HUF 932 million.

This means that the total cost of the building will be close to HUF 2 billion net – at least as things stand at present.

We have previously reported that Octopus Invest Ltd. has won several public tenders, after which their subcontractors in several cities complained that the company has not paid them for work they have done. It is not known how the state will settle accounts with the company over the hundreds of millions of euros spent on the Csorna and Mosonmagyaróvár swimming pools. Especially in the light of the fact that Octopus Invest declared bankrupcy in 2022 and is currently being liquidated.

The swimming pool in Csorna on 7 November 2024 by Átlátszó/Katalin Erdélyi

35 percent of the promised training centres have not been completed

The two failed swimming pool projects are part of a country-wide program announced 10 years ago. The so-called National Public Education Infrastructure Development Program encompassed plans to build classrooms, gymnasiums and training pools in several municipalities in Hungary. In the first round of this program, 24 training pools were promised, followed by 26 more later and 7 more in the third round, bringing the total to 57. Unfortunately, not all of these projects were realised.

Replying to our request for information,

the Ministry of Construction and Transport said that only 37 of the planned 57 swimming pools have been built so far.

This means that 20 swimming pools are still not finished, meaning that 35 percent of the promised projects has not been completed.

Locations of the finished (green) and unfinished (red) swimming pools

This was despite the fact that the projects were modest, compared to the funds the government usually spends on sports project. Building new football stadiums can cost 10 to 20 billions of HUFs each, while international sporting events can cost over 100 million HUF (260 million USD). By contrast, in 2014, one training pool was estimated to cost HUF 3-400 million to build, but finding contractors who would build them for such a small amount was difficult.

Public procurement and construction were delayed, then prices doubled, and finally 6-7-800 million HUFs were spent to build swimming pools across the country. In many places, however, this was still not enough: buildings were only partially completed and have since become a eyesore on the outskirts of towns. In addition to the pools in Csorna and Mosonmagyaróvár, similar problems arose with the one in Pilisvörösvár: here, a 806 million HUF (2.1 million USD) project resulted in only the basic structure of the building being finished, and still stands unroofed in the middle of a field.