As of November 1, 2015, Act CXLIII of 2015 on Public Procurement ("PPA") is the key piece of legislation governing public procurements in Hungary. As a general rule, the provisions of the Act are applicable to public procurements, contracts concluded on the basis of procurement procedures, design contests and review procedures requested, initiated or launched ex officio in relation thereto and preliminary dispute settlements.

Intended to transpose the most important rules of all three relevant EU Directives, the consolidated PPA is completed by the detailed rules of the implementing regulations (government decrees).

Under EU law, Member States were required to transpose the provisions of the new directives into their national legislation by the transposition deadlines specified in the directives. The PPA is in line with the EC Directives.

At the time of its EU-accession, Hungary also joined the WTO Government Procurement Agreement ("GPA").

• transparency of public spending
• open control of the appropriation of public funds efficiently, f
• fair competition in the course of public purchases
• equal treatment
• acting in good faith and fairness, without any abuse of rights.
• Having regard to public spending contracting authorities shall proceed bearing in mind the principle of efficient and prudent management.

In addition to the above, to combat corruption, the Public Procurement Authority (Authority) published a Code of Ethics (http://www.kozbeszerzes.hu/data/filer_public/92/e2/92e2b491-c0a1-4654-be10-4ad65d2fbf36/kozbeszerzesi_etikai_kodex_2016.pdf). The Code of Ethics complements the legal framework and both contracting entities and tenderers are encouraged to voluntarily abide by them. The Authority maintains a public register of those entites, who have accepted the Code of Ethics.

The principles governing the Code of Ethics are the following:

• Legality:
  • Lawful use of rights
  • Fairness
  • Equity
• Transparency:
  • Responsibility
  • Efficiency
• anti-discrimination:
  • integrity

Yes, procurements in the field of defence and security are treated separately and thus, are not governed by the PPA; instead the following separate laws are applicable:

• Act XXX of 2016 on procurement for defense and security purposes is the key legal instrument governing defense procurement related procedures ("Defense Procurement Act"," DPA") The DPA transposes into law Directive 2009/81 / EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 July 2009 from 'classical' public procurement and covers defense procurement, security procurements, and services. The common features of defense supplies are that they are specifically designed for military purposes, given that EU case law is consistent in ensuring that goods, services and works that are capable of performing more than one function are to be procured in line with the directive if they are expressly designed for military purposes in their original or converted form.
• The DPA only provides for the framework of the scope of the goods, services and works, and a detailed list of the Common Military List of the European Union is issued at government level. The concept of security procurements is introduced by the DPA referring to purchases not qualified as defense procurement, but which concern or affect Hungary's internal and external security and involve or generate classified data.
• For the full transposition of the contracting authority concept of the Defense Directive, the law does not list specific bodies as its subject, but rather defines the scope of contracting entities by type of body, and, in the case of security procurements, public service providers as contracting entities.
• Unlike the previous regulation, the Act regulates separate national and separate EU procedures. In the case of defense procurement, the law does not set a national threshold, while the law on security procurement applies only if Government decree 492/2015. (XII. 30.) - on the conditions and the procedure regarding the initiation of the exemption by the National Assembly in connection with the classified procurements, furthermore the requirements to be imposed by the contracting authority during the realisation of such procurements heir estimated value reaches or exceeds the amount corresponding to the respective national public procurement threshold. For both defense and security procurements, the EU value limit for defense and security procurements as well as less stringent rules related to the national procedural rules for procurements of estimated value or above, can not be applied.
• Government decree 225/2016. (VII. 29.) - on the conditions and the procedure concerning the initiation of the exemption by the National Assembly in connection with the basic security interest related procurements, furthermore the requirements to be imposed by the contracting authority during the realisation of such procurements
• Government decree 492/2015. (XII. 30.) - on the conditions and the procedure regarding the initiation of the exemption by the National Assembly in connection with the classified procurements.