The office on June 18, 2024 launched a one-off, comprehensive inquiry into the activities of TIM, and found that the assessment of the organisation's financing, activities and network of relations proved that it carries out political pressure activities as part of a global lobbying network operating for over thirty years, along the interests of the large powers that stand behind the network, a statement said.

The TI network was founded by the World Bank representing US interests, to fulfil its strategic goals, it added.

TIM performs its activities with the involvement of foreign state funding, it said. The main financers of the international network operating the organisation are states that have the largest voting power in the World Bank, and the European Commission.

Also among significant supporters is the Open Society Foundation linked to US businessman George Soros, it added. More than 80 percent of the organisation's operations are financed from foreign sources, it said.

The terms "transparency" and "anti-corruption" used to shape public opinion by the international network that stands behind TIM do not serve the clarity of public life and balanced competition between market players, but are tools to enforce US economic and political interests, the statement said.

The organisation performs activities that are harmful to Hungary, stigmatise the country and state institutions and exert influence based on disinformation by monopolising these terms.

The main tool of the organisation is a corruption perceptions index prepared in the Berlin centre, which the organisations financing and/or cooperating with TI, and TI itself, can use "manipulatively" to best serve their interests, the Sovereignty Protection Office said.

The report prepared by the office shows that the corruption perceptions index and its utilisation possesses all formal characteristics of disinformation, and can be considered disinformation "because it is capable of presenting untrue statements as the truth", it added.

The methodology of the corruption perceptions index is "manipulative", making the index capable of influencing the international assessment of countries, it said. TIM attempts to paint an unfavourable picture of Hungary and Hungarian state administration organisations by communicating this index, it added.

"The TIM's shadow reports containing disinformation prepared for the European Commission cause real political, economic and social damage to Hungary," the office said.

The methodology of the "shadow reports" is kept hidden from Hungarian society, while the "disinformation campaign" built on them attempts to restrict Hungary's ability to enforce its political and economic interests internationally, the statement said.

Transparency International 

The Sovereignty Protection Office also said that during the inquiry, TIM had refused to cooperate right from the start. "Despite this, based on the analysis of information revealed and an assessment of correlations, the office concluded that the organisation's operations are not transparent," it added.

TIM: Sovereignty Protection Office report 'unlawful'

Transparency International on Tuesday called a report by the National Sovereignty Protection Office on the results of an investigation into the NGO's activities "unlawful" and riddled with mistakes, misleading statements and "conjectures putting communist … conspiracy theories to shame".

The sovereignty protection office noted in statement on Monday that on June 18 it launched a targeted, comprehensive inquiry into the activities of TIM, and found that the assessment of the organisation's financing, activities and network of relations "prove that it carried out political pressure activities as part of a global lobbying network operating for over thirty years, along the interests of the large powers that stood behind the network".

Transparency International Hungary (TIM) said in response that under the relevant regulations, the report should have been sent to them before publication, and the sovereignty office had an obligation to respond to their observations. None of that happened, and the sovereignty office's "accusations" were published in a manner that "doesn't even respect the provisions of the law laying the foundations for the office's operations", TIM said.

In the report, "the state-funded organisation ... fantasises about a global conspiracy led by the US, secret games of espionage between world powers, and, who else, George Soros," TIM said.

The report also delves into Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index (CPI), the statement said. CPI's methodology is public information, "so there's no sense in launching an investigation into TIM to obtain information which is already in the public domain."

"TI Hungary remains what it always has been: a non-partisan NGO uncovering and fighting corruption, striving to further Hungary's development," the statement said.

In response to the sovereignty office's assessment that TIM had not operated transparently, the NGO said its annual Declaration of Public Use was published in line with all regulations, and, in addition, it voluntarily prepared an audit.

It said TI Hungary and several NGOs had criticised the law on the protection of sovereignty before its adoption, and turned to the Constitutional Court with a complaint after the Sovereignty protection office launched an "specific investigation" targeted against TI and investigative reporting site atlatszo.hu in the summer.

TI did so because it considered both the existence of the office and the law establishing it to be unconstitutional, it added.

"TI Hungary is considering taking further legal action against the sovereignty protection office for the error-ridden and groundless findings in the report," it said.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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