Single bidders win 19.6% of Hungarian tenders

19.6% of Hungarian public tenders closed with a single bidder last year. HUF 309.5bn in procurement contracts sit behind opaque private-equity ownership structures. The largest central purchasing bodies, handling over HUF 3,700bn from 2020 to 2025, barely responded when asked to cooperate with the country's anti-corruption watchdog (Telex, 24.hu).

These findings come from Hungary's Integrity Authority, the institution Budapest created under EU pressure to unlock frozen funds. Its 2025 summary report, published this week, is the body's most comprehensive procurement audit yet. The authority says overpricing is systemic, competition is routinely disabled, and the system rewards inflated prices.

How prices stay inflated

The problem is structural. Bidders' prices are measured against an "estimated value" that does not have to reflect what things actually cost. Previous inflated contracts then serve as benchmarks for new ones, locking in above-market spending that compounds over time (HVG).

Contracting authorities manipulate scale to kill competition: merging procurements so only large firms qualify, or splitting them to dodge open tendering (Portfolio). Technical specifications get tailored until only one company fits. The same firms appear repeatedly, bid together, and win together. Construction and energy, two of the state's largest spending categories, show the worst overpricing.

A separate transparency gap runs through central purchasing. Contracts covering public-sector energy, vehicles, furniture and travel do not appear on the public procurement platform at all. Their value exceeds HUF 500bn before energy costs, and could reach four to five times that once energy is included (HVG).

Three EU locks on Hungary's money

The report does not automatically freeze or release anything. Three separate EU mechanisms control whether Hungary gets its money. The Council (where member-state governments vote) suspended €6.3bn in cohesion funds in December 2022 under the Conditionality Regulation, the EU's tool linking budget protection to rule-of-law standards. Hungary's post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Plan includes 27 "super-milestones" covering anti-corruption and procurement safeguards that must be met before money flows (European Commission). And EU cohesion rules can block reimbursements if Hungary does not meet governance conditions, without any fresh political vote (Common Provisions Regulation).

None of these locks opens automatically because of the report. But the report is evidence from the institution Brussels required Hungary to build. If that institution says prices remain inflated, the Commission faces an awkward judgment call on whether reform promises are enough to unblock funds. The European Court of Auditors warned separately that traceability and transparency of recovery spending remain insufficient across the bloc.

The Poland problem

Poland sharpens the difficulty. In February 2024, Brussels released around €137bn in EU funds to Poland's reformist government before judicial reforms were fully tested. That decision shadows every conditionality case since: it showed that political direction can matter as much as measurable results.

Hungary's Parliament passed new procurement legislation on 23 June, including stricter conflict-of-interest rules and beneficial-ownership transparency. If Brussels pays because Prime Minister Péter Magyar changed Hungary's politics, before tenders become more competitive and cheaper, the EU's rule-of-law funding tool starts to look political rather than rule-based.

Slovakia has already drawn its own conclusion. While Hungary tries to return to EU conditions after its fund freeze, Slovakia is beginning to repeat its mistakes, Denník N reported. In April, the European Parliament called on the Commission to consider the same mechanism against Bratislava.

The credibility test is narrower and harder than it looks: what proof does Brussels require before money moves? Hungary's watchdog has produced the evidence that the procurement machine still inflates prices. What the Commission does with that evidence will say more about conditionality than any new law passed in Budapest.