András Cser-Palkovics

As Mayor of Székesfehérvár, András Cser-Palkovics has repeatedly presided over drastic cost overruns on major municipal projects without any apparent consequence for the contractors involved. In January 2019, he blamed the construction industry on Facebook for the fact that three flagship developments — a hospital expansion, a multi-purpose sports and events hall whose cost had ballooned from HUF 13.8 billion to HUF 25.7 billion, and a HUF 15.8 billion secondary-school campus — had become uncertain or unworkable due to overpriced contracting, stating: "public money can only be spent responsibly. Runaway investment costs must be stopped." Commenters on the post argued that responsibility also lay with the mayor for allowing a distorted, corrupted procurement system to take hold in the city. That same arena project would have cost HUF 25 billion in 2018, but the government judged it too expensive and shelved it; by 2021, rebranded as the Alba Aréna, it was won by Market Építő Zrt. — a company tied to businessman István Garancsi — with a net bid of HUF 35 billion, ten billion more than three years earlier.