'The verdict was delivered before the investigation had been conducted' – Transparency International Hungary reacts to SPO investigation

Transparency International Hungary (TI) was unable to send us a detailed reaction to the attacks against their organization contained in the report of the Sovereignty Protection Office (SPO) on Monday, but they sent us a detailed response on Tuesday. The SPO accuses TI Hungary of, among other things, serving US interests, receiving foreign funding and spreading disinformation, even though – as previously reported – prior to coming to power in 2010, Fidesz politicians themselves regularly used the reports of Transparency International as reference.

In its reaction on Tuesday, TI wrote that "the report, which was drawn up as a summary of its investigation launched on 19 June, is laden with fabrications, factual errors and serious distortions that put to shame the theories about Western imperialist conspiracies once popular in communist ideology". Transparency International said that the SPO had managed to publish its report without complying with the law governing its own operation.

Namely, prior to its publication, the draft report should have been sent to the NGO, allowing TI to comment on it, to which the Office should have again responded before publishing its report.

Telex sent questions about this to the SPO on Monday. We asked whether they also interpreted the corresponding law as meaning that the organization under investigation should first receive the report and be allowed to comment on it. We also asked why Transparency International had not been sent the report on their operations before publication, and how they interpreted the relevant law. We have not yet received a reply from the organization led by Tamás Lánczi.

In its reaction, Transparency International also lists the odd bits of the report, including the bringing up of George Soros, or mentioning SZDSZ (a former Hungarian liberal party not active since 2013), but the agency's document also deals with the Corruption Perceptions Index created by TI's Berlin office. The methodology of this is publicly available, "so it was really not necessary to initiate an investigation against TI Hungary in order to learn about it," the organization writes. They mention that after a 2018 audit they requested from the European Commission, their index was found to be a suitable tool for measuring corruption. Here, TI Hungary also mentions that

while they were in opposition, Fidesz leaders used to criticize left-wing governments based on TI Hungary’s reports.

According to TI Hungary, they are still just "a non-partisan NGO that seeks to promote the advancement of Hungary by exposing and fighting corruption", which is what actually bothers the authorities. They write that the SPO has arrived at the untrue conclusion that Transparency's activities also contributed to the launching of the conditionality mechanism against Hungary, which entailed the withholding of EU funds. This is how the NGO puts it:

“TI Hungary is not surprised that the SPO, which operates on an annual budget of HUF 6 billion of public funds and whose research institute is staffed by outstanding figures who were once part of the III/III department (counterintelligence) before the regime change or who question the significance of the 1956 revolution, is attacking our organization with such sloppy work.”

In their opinion, the office was looking for ammunition for an opinion it had already formulated against TI Hungary prior to the investigation, but failed to reach a truthful conclusion. They then quote an iconic scene from the film The Witness (a satirical Hungarian film made in 1969): "the verdict in our case was delivered before the investigation had even been conducted".

TI Hungary writes that the allegation that they are not transparent is baseless, as they publish all information about themselves, including an annual public benefit report. Much of the data in the SPO’s report comes from their website and reports, which thus contradicts the SPO's claim that they lack transparency. They also point out that the Sovereignty Protection Office first sent its report to Magyar Nemzet instead of them, which is the only explanation for the publication of excerpts from the document over the weekend, before it was officially published.

Lastly, they note that along with Átlátszó.hu, which is also under investigation, they have turned to the Constitutional Court because of the SPO, and in the meanwhile the European Commission has also launched infringement proceedings against Hungary over the Sovereignty Protection Act. Since the Hungarian government has not provided a satisfactory response to the latter, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice, which is expected to deliver its judgment in a little over a year.

The Sovereignty Protection Office, headed by Tamás Lánczi, started its operations in February of this year, following the adoption of the Sovereignty Protection Act adopted in December 2023. Transparency International Hungary, which is engaged in fighting corruption and promoting transparency, was one of the first targets of the institution, and the SPO launched proceedings against them in June this year. Shortly afterwards, in August, Tamás Lánczi and Miklós Ligeti, TI Hungary's legal director, debated at Tranzit Festival in Tihany.

During the discussion, when describing the situation, Lánczi confronted Ligeti in a very hostile tone. "You must understand that you are not above the Hungarian state. The legitimacy of the Hungarian state is unchallengeable (...) You are trying to cling to a legitimacy that you yourselves have created, claiming that you are fighting for some sort of noble goal. But the fact is that this game is now over," Lánczi said at the time. In its report on the debate, the pro-government Mandiner described it as TI's "Stalingrad".