Ex-Fidesz caucus leader’s PR firm reaps benefits of state tenders

State companies and other firms are paying consultancy fees of hundreds of millions of forints to the advertising agency owned by Tibor Kuna, who was Fidesz caucus leader from 2003-08.

Young&Partners has made many successful applications for state communication tenders in recent years, landing HUF 700 million as the only applicant for a Ministry of Rural Development tender, HUF 400 million from the Prime Minister’s Office, and HUF 25 million from the National Health Insurance Fund.

As well as public procurements, the agency has also landed PR contracts with the state energy and utilities watchdog, the National Development Agency, culture festival Hungarofest and the state waterworks MVM, not to mention companies including E.ON, Lidl, Sanofi, Swietelsky and Közgép.

Atlatszo.hu can reveal that five regional public utility water companies are Young&Partners clients and has filed freedom of information (FOIA) requests to all of them, although only the North Transdanubian regional waterworks had answered at the time of writing. According to the documents provided, Young&Partners had received HUF 158 million from state coffers for PR and consultancy work up to last month. The four other public utility companies have not yet completed their FOIA requests.

The original article was published on 13 November 2013 in Hungarian. Edited by Dan Nolan.