Lázár accuses Philip Morris of creating anti-Fidesz scandal

Hungary’s national tobacco company has refused a Socialist lawmaker access to documents containing bids submitted for a recent tender. The company on Wednesday rejected Csaba Toth’s request to view the bids for tobacco concessions, arguing that even though the company is publicly owned, it is not a state agency and so does not have to disclose public information. Toth said he would appeal to the National Development Ministry. Parties of the opposition have sharply criticized the government for the tobacco tender, claiming that members of the ruling Fidesz party influenced the tender process. Legislation approved last September established a state monopoly on the retail sale of tobacco products from July 1, 2013. Meanwhile, Janos Lazar, head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said the recent scandal surrounding the national tender for tobacco concessions may have been fuelled by tobacco giant Philip Morris, a senior government official has said. Philip Morris’s interests were harmed by the revamp of tobacco trade in the country, Lazar said in an interview to the weekly Heti Valasz. The company first lobbied the European Commission before making an attempt to stop Hungarian legislation from changing rules on public information, and launched a political campaign to blacken the government, Lazar said in the interview, an excerpt of which the paper released to MTI on Wednesday. “They sent us a clear message that they would do everything in their capacity to prevent the new system from being introduced. With such a large market, spending a few hundred million forints on a PR campaign is no problem,” he said. Referring to allegations that concession winners had been selected according to instructions from the ruling Fidesz, Lazar insisted that 90 percent of the winners were not associated with the party. Heti Valasz will publish the full interview on Thursday. Source: http://www.politics.hu/20130509/socialist-mp-refused-access-to-tobacco-documents-lazar-accuses-phillip-morris-of-creating-anti-fidesz-scandal/