Flórián Farkas

Flórián Farkas, president of the Lungo Drom Roma advocacy organization and former head of the National Roma Self-Government (ORÖ), personally signed a framework agreement with Viktor Orbán in 2011 for the EU-funded "Bridge to the World of Work" employment program, whose budget was cut from 5 billion to 2.5 billion forints after controversies, with the ORÖ receiving 1.5 billion of it. OLAF's investigation concluded in October 2018 and referred its findings to the Chief Prosecutor's Office, yet Hungary's tax authority (NAV) still had not identified anyone responsible for the project's irregularities four years on, while the government ultimately covered the ORÖ's losses with 1.3 billion forints in central funding. In a separate 6-billion-forint EU-funded project ("Path to Vocational Choice"), prosecutors opened a bribery investigation in 2016 after ORÖ representatives alleged Farkas paid them for loyalty; twenty representatives reportedly received monthly 250,000-forint "mentor" payments without doing real work. As of 2017 the investigation had led neither to charges nor even to Farkas being questioned as a witness, and Fidesz signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Lungo Drom shortly afterward. Farkas himself denied any disputed matter could be linked to him personally, and no charges were ultimately filed against him — making the case an example of unaccountable EU-fund management by organizations built around him, rather than a personal conviction.