<\/p>\n
A \u201cPremium room\u201d with a king size bed in Hotel Bulgari. A \u201cDeluxe room\u201d decorated with Italian designer fabrics in the Four Seasons. Or a \u201cClassic suit\u201d in Hotel Armani of up to 70 square meters.<\/p>\n
J\u00e1nos L\u00e1z\u00e1r, head of the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, could have got any of these hotel rooms when he spent a Friday night in Milan in the summer of 2013. According to his office, L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s hotel bill was 298 thousand forints, which, based on the exchange rates then, amounted to a little more than 1.000 euros. The office keeps refusing to disclose where L\u00e1z\u00e1r stayed but this sum would have been enough for booking rooms (calculating with current prices) in any of the luxury hotels listed above. Several other five-star hotels in Milan offer rooms at one-third of the amount what was paid for L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s accomodation.<\/p>\n
Newly and formerly disclosed records show that several hundreds of thousands of forints were spent on other expenses on the Milan trip and on L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s another two-day visit to Zurich. The details of these expenses are not known.<\/p>\n
It was in early 2014 when Direkt36\u2019s journalist \u2013 then a reporter with Origo – started to ask questions about some of J\u00e1nos L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s foreign trips that had much higher hotel bills than other officials\u2019 travels did. When the Prime Minister\u2019s Office failed to provide meaningful answers about the trips, the journalist launched a public information lawsuit with the assistance of Transparency International.<\/p>\n
L\u00e1z\u00e1r was accompanied by one person on each trip and the original travel database provided by the government showed only the total value of their hotel bills. The data did not reveal the specific cost of L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s rooms.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s Office, however, disclosed some of these details in their answers to a recently submitted, new list of questions by Direkt36. In the case of the trip to Milan, exactly half of the 598 thousand forint hotel bill was spent on L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s room, the office said. This sum included the procurement fee as well, which amounted to 14 thousand forints (44 euros at current rate), records show.<\/p>\n
In the case of another trip, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office modified its originally disclosed details. They had said earlier that when L\u00e1z\u00e1r spent one night in Z\u00fcrich, Switzerland in March 2013, the hotel for him and his aide cost 481 thousand forints (1536 euros). Now the office claims that in fact the bill was only 189 thousand (603 euros), of which 103 thousand (329 euros) was spent on L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s room.<\/p>\n
When asked for an explanation of the modification, the Prime Minister\u2019s Office said that the original number included \u201eother costs different from the hotel bill, such as material expenses, which were originally recognized as accommodation expenses\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201eMaterial expenses\u201d might mean any costs connected to a trip, explained a former government official who had participated in several foreign missions. Theoretically, food costs are not recognized as material expenses, he said, as they have to be covered by the daily stipend of the officials. However, \u201cif a phone charger needs to be bought urgently, it is recognised among material expenses\u201d, explained the former official. He added that higher expenses, such as car rentals, might be recognised as material expenses too.<\/p>\n
Prime Minister\u2019s Office\u2019s answer suggests that during L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s two-day travel to Switzerland 290 thousand forints (930 euros) was spent on material expenses. We have asked the office what exactly the money was spent on, but we have not received an answer yet.<\/p>\n
Even more was spent on material expenses during L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s travel to Milan. Data on the 2012-2013 foreign missions of the Prime Minister\u2019s Office, previously sent to Direkt36\u2019s journalist, show that 1548 euro (458 thousand forints at current rate) was recognised as material expenses on the travel in July 2013. It means that the two-day travel to Italy of L\u00e1z\u00e1r and his aide cost more than 1 million forint (3213 euros). The government database does not include flight tickets or any other travel expenses, but some of L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s other trips lack these records too.<\/p>\n
We asked the Prime Minister\u2019s Office about the details of the material expenses of the trip to Italy, but we have not received any answer yet.<\/p>\n
L\u00e1z\u00e1r had a third trip with unusually high hotel bills. This was a mission in London, November 2012, where the cost of two nights\u2019 accommodation for L\u00e1z\u00e1r and his aide was as high as 920 thousand forints (2956 euros). The Prime Minister\u2019s Office said that it is not possible to disclose the specific price of L\u00e1z\u00e1r\u2019s hotel room, as the \u201caccommodation expenses of the delegation were recognized jointly\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s Office provided few details on what L\u00e1z\u00e1r did during these trips, arguing that revealing such details would hurt national interests. During the lawsuit they acknowledged, however, that only the details of the England trip are classified while the Swiss and Italian visits do not have similar protection.<\/p>\n