The mayor of Balmazújváros is responsible for the fact that municipal workers in the settlement do not get paid. Although Péter Hegedüs claims several times a day that the Kúria has said: Balmazújváros has a legally adopted budget for 2024, Hungary’s highest judicial body has not yet decided on this issue, the Ministry of Public Administration and Territorial Development announced.
As previously reported by Magyar Nemzet, municipal civil servants do not receive salaries in the settlement because the municipal board did not create either this year’s budget decree or last year’s final accounting decree by the deadline set by law – despite the government office’s call for legality.
Due to the omission, the matter is currently on the Court’s table.
According to the current legislation, if the local government does not accept its budget for the given year by March 15, or the final accounts of the previous fiscal year by May 31, then the allocation of the local government will be suspended. According to the information, Balmazújváros did not meet any of the deadlines.
Balmazújváros can receive the money retroactively
Péter Hegedüs – after the start of the Curia procedure – created a budget decree in one person instead of the representative body, but its legality and validity are doubtful. Neither the mayor nor the ministry has the authority to determine whether a local government decree is valid, only the Curia has the right to do so, so the government office contacted the Supreme Court several weeks ago, so the Curia already has to make a decision on two issues. It is important that
as long as the Kúria does not decide on the submissions, the financing of the settlement must be suspended.
The Ministry of Public Administration and Territorial Development (KTM) believes that the mayor is unwilling to cooperate with the representative body and legally create the budget of Balmazújváros. The department promises that as soon as Balmazújváros has a legally accepted budget and final accounts, the settlement will receive its net funding retroactively. (This happened last year as well, when the municipality was also unable to accept the final accounts: the mayor had to do it instead.)
The mayor presented a petition
According to the parliamentary state secretary of the Ministry of Public Administration and Territorial Development, it depends on the mayor of Balmazújváros whether the local government workers receive a salary. After receiving the petition of Mayor Péter Hegedűs, Csaba Latorcai said: the ministry is reviewing the contents of the document and wants to help solve the problem. He reminded: until the Kuria decides, the funding of the city has been suspended.
Csaba Latorcai drew the mayor’s attention to the fact that if he “really wants to solve the problem and the situation of hundreds of families is really important to him”, then the key to solving the case is in his hands. There is no obstacle for the mayor to call a meeting of the representative body and “finally pass the budget decree legally”, after which all obstacles to the financing of Balmazújváros will be removed.
He recalled that this is not the first such problematic situation in the case of Balmazújváros municipality. In the past year, it was not possible to pass the final accounting decree in accordance with the law, even then the Hajdú-Bihar County Government Office helped, and finally the mayor issued a decree under his own authority on the acceptance of the final accounting, and thus settled the illegal situation. The government office is ready to provide all assistance now so that legal decisions can be made and the employees of the municipality can receive their rightful salary.
Mayor Péter Hegedűs admitted that the city really did not succeed in creating this year’s budget and last year’s closing accounts decree in time “due to the dysfunctional functioning of the representative body”. Without them, the city will not receive net funding, which is a basic condition for its operation, he indicated. According to the city manager, on June 10, there were two failed council meetings in a row. The Court is called upon to decide how legal this was.
According to him, Balmazújváros has a legally adopted decree, and this is how the city gets its net funding. Their petition, which has just been handed over, is also about this, that the city immediately receives the necessary funding for its operation.
Péter Boros, the president of the Union of Hungarian Civil Servants, Public Employees and Public Employees (MKKSZ), stated that because of the government bureaucrats, 400 state employees, civil servants and civil servants of the municipality of Balmazújváros have not received their salaries for the second month.