From the 2026 budget audit
1.5 milliárd Ft to develop government IT infrastructure — frozen in cash terms.
Capital development of the IT systems government runs on: held flat while the larger operating lines are similarly constrained.
Roughly 380 Ft per taxpayer per year — 1,517 millió Ft in infrastructure capital, frozen so the operator manages development priorities within a fixed envelope.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: new government IT capacity and system upgrades. The unseen: the absence of competitive pressure on what gets built and at what cost — the freeze substitutes for market discipline in a procurement environment where the client does not face a price.
Objection
"Infrastructure has to be refreshed — you can't freeze capital and expect systems not to degrade."
Answer
The freeze is on the cash envelope, not on the activity. The operator decides which infrastructure investment is most critical within the allocated budget. That forced prioritisation is the efficiency mechanism — the same constraint any privately-funded IT operator works within.
Share if you think government IT capital should be prioritised within a budget, not claimed as a fixed entitlement.
The analyst's verdict
Infocommunication tasks — Government infocommunication services — Infrastructure development
Rationale
Running the IT systems on which government administration depends — the operational and infrastructure lines — is a real support cost of functions that exist for other reasons. It is not itself a rights-protection function, but it is the unavoidable operating cost of the administration that delivers those functions, and it cannot be cut without disabling the services it underpins. The honest classification is Nominal Freeze: hold the lines flat, let real-terms erosion impose a steady efficiency discipline (roughly 20-25% real compression over a decade), and require the operator to absorb that through procurement and consolidation rather than through tariff growth. Government IT is a notorious soft-budget environment — costs drift upward because the internal customer does not face a price and the provider faces no competitive tender — so the nominal freeze is doing real work: it converts an open-ended cost into a fixed envelope the provider must manage within.
Transition mechanism
Hold at nominal level. Real-terms erosion of roughly 20-25% over a decade imposed through the freeze. The operator absorbs this through procurement and consolidation rather than tariff growth.
Affected groups
Government IT infrastructure developers and contractors; all public-sector services dependent on the developed infrastructure.
Free Society Institute
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