The financial manager of the school district with record debt was arrested

Although the government provided about HUF 1,800 million to settle their debts in December last year, many school districts already accumulated new debts in January, Népszava reports, referring to the Hungarian State Treasury.

In January, 26 out of 60 school district centers had overdue debt. The biggest debt (a total of HUF 340 million) belonged to the Belső-Pest Tankerületi Központ, whose financial manager was arrested the other day for corruption crimes. The Mátészalka center was second (HUF 193 million), and Váci was third (HUF 177 million).

By February, several school districts had settled and reduced their debts, the total amount of debt was HUF 1,599 million. At the same time, the debt of the Kaposvár center increased from zero to 154 million in one month, and that of Békéscsaba from 39 million to 155 million forints. The record holder – with 336 million – was the Belső-Pest Tankerületi Központ, whose economic manager manipulated public procurement procedures and issued fictitious invoices, so he was able to get tens of millions of forints. (The Tanítanék Movement pasted signs saying “Don’t steal!” on the door of the center.)

According to Népszava, the Klebelsberg Center (KK) usually answers questions about the management of school districts by saying that the centers are independent budget bodies and make their economic decisions independently. At the same time, according to the government decree on the operation of the KK, the control of the management of the school district centers would be the responsibility of the KK, the newspaper reports.