Hungary's authorities are conducting a "real investigation" into alleged fraud concerning public lighting projects, Chief Prosecutor Peter Polt said in a letter to Ingeborg Graessle, head of the European Parliament's budget control committee, MTI reports.
The Hungarian news agency writes that Graessle had earlier urged effective steps to investigate projects by the Elios company, associated with Lajos Simicska and Istvan Tiborcz, after the European anti-fraud office OLAF raised suspicion of fraudulent activities. Polt said in his letter that his office had received OLAF's recommendations on January 8, and an investigation was launched two weeks later.
He also reminded that while OLAF had the authority to launch administrative investigations in the interest of the EU's finances, "it has no powers to conduct criminal proceedings or investigate criminal cases
