So who does János Veres need to better explain himself to, the taxpayers or his wife?

The million forint question that’s been going around Hungarian political circles since this past weekend is “what was János Veres doing in East Asia with a female colleague”? The question was first raised after a reader of tabloid Blikk snapped the former finance minister along with former MEP Alexandra Dobolyi (above right, who is his direct subordinate in the Office of the Prime Minister where Veres currently works) on a street in Macau. The tabloid was unable to find a listing of an official visit to the region, but noticed that the pair had made three other visits to foreign destinations since last July.

When confronted by the tabloid, Veres took the usual politician’s tactic of deny everything, but unfortunately for him, Dobolyi replied that it was an official visit, which the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist Party then both denied.

Veres later admitted to going to Macau, but claimed it was via an official trip to Beijing, index.hu reported. The portal later uncovered that the pair had also been to Mongolia in the previous month on the taxpayer’s dime, as well as visits last September to Belarus and last November to Shanghai.

Veres told Blikk on Monday that he suddenly now remembered that the trip to Macau was paid out of his own pocket, after Dobolyi claimed Monday morning that the trips were funded by the Socialist Parties. So far, the government spokeperson’s office told the tabloid that Chancellery Minister Csaba Molnár okayed the trips.

Of course, nothing seems to have been cleared up, except that Veres and Dobolyi are obviously unable to get their stories straight. The reason for the denials is also worth questioning, as well as if Veres did pay for the Macau trip out of his own pocket, what was he doing there with a female colleague? The only thing these misfired explanations have revealed is that the two obviously really want to hide something. The only question is what that is?