Lajos Simicska

Peter Szijjarto was clearly furious that APEH, which is supervised by the Finance Ministry, had asked for Orban's tax affairs to be inspected. The opposition spokesman said this appeared to confirm rumours of a planned no-holds-barred attack on Fidesz and Fidelitas politicians. It has been suggested that Ferenc Gyurcsany aims to use the power of state authorities for political ends.

There is no question that Janos Veres, the finance minister who is ultimately in charge of APEH, is morally tarnished following apparent VAT fraud committed by his business partners, since some of the mud stuck to him. Every unbiased citizen must wonder whether we are not the targets of a diversionary tactic. Fidesz may right, morally speaking, but they have no legal reasons for concern. Why not?

In its capacity as principle opposition party, Fidesz says tax inspectors are obeying political orders. They should know. Immediately after taking power, in 1998, the Orban government appointed Lajos Simicska, the former commercial director of Fidesz, as APEH president. He immediately replaced the body's two deputy presidents with loyal bureaucrats.

Under Simicska, APEH's "VIP revisions" always seemed to coincide with political events. In summer 1999, shortly after Tamas Deutsch was removed from office as minister for sport, tax police examined the affairs of Attila Kovacs, president of the Hungarian football league. They then turned their attention to DOM Rt., which was building Gyula Horn's villa. Byelections were held in autumn 1999, and the moderate MDF politician Tibor Viniczai ran against Fidesz's preferred candidate. Curiously, at just that moment, Viniczai's tax affairs were subjected to urgent attention. After Simicska's resignation, Ildiko Vida became head of the authority. In September 2000, the criminal affairs unit of APEH came under her personal control. Immediately, the head of this investigative branch was sacked, along with seven of his subordinates. Press reports suggested at the time that they had "protested against the practice of allowing the president to look at anybody's files by claiming it was part of an internal investigation." Longevity was low in those days. Two years saw five senior officials in one post.

Neither before nor since has there been a democratic government that has so openly entrusted APEH to such clearly political figures. Certainly, other governments may have been influenced by political decisions when appointing APEH's management. It may be that the investigations into Orban's and Kubatov's affairs are politically motivated. Especially, if the Magyar Nemzet's allegation that inspectors are no longer allocated randomly to cases is correct. If true, then why was it necessary to do this? If cases are not allocated randomly by machine, then how are inspectors matched up with cases? Is this done manually? If so, then there would be serious risks of bias. Citizens have a right to be concerned.

But Fidesz's outrage is unconvincing. Things would only change if Fidesz would confront its own earlier overpoliticisation of the tax authority. Both sides should accept that a politician, whether in power or not, must not be an untouchable sacred cow.

Tamás Papp László