Graft affects up to three quarters of Hungarian public procurements and bumps up the cost of each by 25 percent, head of GKI, a think-tank, told a news conference on Tuesday.
Andras Vertes said there was general agreement that the roots of corruption in Hungary lay in the hazy legal background of political party and campaign financing.
Seventy percent of the public see politicians as the main culprits in dodgy public procurement deals while 23 percent lay the blame with technical managers, according to a joint survey by the Public Procurement Council and MAST Market and Public Research quoted by Vertes.
Graft puts upward pressure on prices, weakens quality and puts limits on competition, said Vertes.
Last year, public procurements in Hungary were worth a total of 1,600 billion forints (EUR 5.7 bn). In 22-26 percent of deals, no competitive bids were invited at all, he noted.
By international comparison, Hungary stands in mid-field among developed countries in terms of its corruption level. On a global list, Hungary stood in 47th place last year, in between cleaner the Czech Republic (45) and dirtier Slovakia (52).
