MET PRESS RELEASE: WE DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO KEEP OUR INSTITUTIONS

MET PRESS RELEASE: WE DO EVERYTHING WE CAN TO KEEP OUR INSTITUTIONS

A delegation from the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship (HEF) and the Oltalom Charity Society (OCS) held forward-looking talks with the top leaders of the Tax Authority of Hungary (NAV) on 30 July. They received our documentation, which included our institution-by-institution debt settlement and reorganisation plans, and found it to be of a very high standard.

We received detailed guidance from the NAV on the way forward. We have renewed our application for suspension of enforcement. The documentation has been sent to all regional directorates. We have received a positive response regarding our planned application to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in August, as we can use the potential compensation awarded there to settle debts. In their opinion, this is another indication that we will have the funds to repay the debt in the foreseeable future.

As the Ministry of Interior announced on 25 July that “the National Tax and Customs Authority decides on debt settlement schedules and measures for debt recovery within the scope of its powers under Act CXXII of 2010 on the National Tax and Customs Authority”, and the NAV positively accepted our submission, we submitted a supplementary request for support to the competent authorities of the Ministry. The legislation in force allows the State to conclude a contract for the payment of additional aid irrespective of our ecclesiastical status. Such a contract was already in place under the State Secretary Rózsa Hoffmann (Annex 2: EMMI contract). This aid would enable us to implement the debt settlement plan submitted and to repay all our public debts within the foreseeable future.

We have requested a statement from the Ministry of the Interior Affairs confirming that the imposition of the measures on the HEF and OCS institutions is contrary to the public interest. Pupils from our schools with multiple disadvantages are not welcome in public education institutions, where they are subject to constant exclusion and neglect. Pupils with special educational needs cannot be integrated into public educational establishments where there is a lack of specialist support for their personalised, specialised development. Most of our institutions offer a last chance to students who have been excluded from the traditional school system and are unable to obtain a suitable education or a profession. Our homeless care facilities provide specialised service not available elsewhere. And the collection of the hospital bill is literally putting lives at risk.

Following centrally ordered investigations by government offices, procedures have been launched in several institutions, the results of which are still awaited. The feedback received so far has complained about the discovery of some expired cleaning products in one of our institutions. Our error has been acknowledged and the cleaning products have been replaced.

The normative subsidy for the Oltalom Hospital has been recovered again this month, continuing to directly threaten the rights, lives and care of patients. We have asked for the normative subsidy to be returned as soon as possible to prevent further collection.

The Budaörs Municipality took over the maintenance of our local nursing home. The municipality had already been supporting the institution with significant amounts of money, unfortunately most of which was also collected by the NAV. In this situation, the handover seemed to be the best solution to ensure the continued operation of the home.

HEF has no plans to transfer any more institutions.There is a good chance that during August the administrative obstacles will be removed, institutional executions will be suspended, the collection will be lifted and the September budget will be fully paid. We are doing our utmost to ensure a safe start to the school year, to keep our institutions running and to find additional resources. The touching and uplifting support from society, the many donations, which provide us with enough funds to operate for weeks and give us time to take the necessary steps, is a huge help. Since the announcement of the collection, we have received more than 96 million forints in donations and a large amount of donations of non-perishable food. Thank you to our supporters!

This is a very challenging time for us, but we remain confident that we will find a way out of this very critical situation and continue our gap-filling social and educational work, which we have taken over from the state.