They reached a “good deal” with the private partners in the projects, he said, thanking them for their “correct cooperation” during the process.

The buyouts will continue in 2017, the state secretary said. The universities will save about 14 billion forints through the current buyouts on the long run, Palkovics said.

In the case of smaller institutions, the lease and services fees paid to the private partner in the PPP projects could have made up 20-50% of their total budget, he said.

Operation, maintenance and eventual renovation costs at the bought-out projects have in some cases exceeded the cost of operation by the institution itself by 30%, ministerial commissioner for the buyouts Árpád Gyetvai added.

Some of the buildings the universities pay a lease for are unused, he said. The buyout affects four PPP projects of West Hungary University, one project each at Dunaújváros University, Eötvös József High School, Eszterházy Károly University, Miskolc University, Nyíregyháza University and two projects at Pallasz Athéné University run by the National Bank of Hungary.

The government decided in 2015 to buy out 26 university PPPs by 2017 at a projected cost of 37.6 billion forints.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Mohai Balázs