Subcontractors and workers, who built a new bridge spanning the Danube in northern Budapest, on Friday staged a demonstration demanding payment for their services.
The demonstrators who gathered on Megyeri Bridge told MTI’s correspondents that Ganz Hid-, Daru-, Acelszerkezetgyarto Zrt owed individuals and subcontractors anything between 200,000 forints and several hundred million.
The state should make sure that Ganz, once it has received his payment from the central budget, settles with its subcontractors, said the protestors.
Zoltan Farkas, who worked on the project as a private welder, produced a statement from the head of Ganz showing that the company owed him over 1.3 million forints for three months’ work. Nonetheless, he said the tax authority still expected him to pay taxes for the amount yet to be received.
Companies have gone bankrupt, and about 500 people have now lost their jobs because of unpaid subcontractor invoices, Laszlo Horvath, organiser of the protest, told MTI.
Megyeri Bridge, built at a cost of 63 billion forints, was completed and opened for traffic on September 30 last year.
So there are a lot of serious reasons not to accept any contract or carry out works without at least 80% prepayment, and full guarantee for payment by gov’t cash-check. But even then they can pull you a leg, stating that we have the ‘kípróbálási jegyzõkönyv’, but not the “beüzemelési jegyzõkönyv’, needed for the final payment, ghe ghe ghe…….
Law is strict here, the game is played by the book. Better not to get involved in this sick joke here.
Entrepreneur since 1992.
Did the state actually payout? Did the main contractors over-run? What happens here if the individuals don’t get paid? How does HU law cover those that have paid the tax on profit reverse such if the debts are not paid?