Inscription on the back of the photo: "Head clerk, January 1967." This was my ID card at the Ministry of Internal Trade. ... The director was called Karcsi.
“Comrade Salgó, we’re employing you in the transportation board of directors, as the head clerk.’ I wound up in the transportation board in the ministry. That lasted about two years or maybe one. Then they told me that there was a directive saying the transportation board is closing, and a will become a company trust. The director called me in, he asked me, ‘Tibor, what do you want to do?’ There were two possibilities, stay with the trust where all the Internal Commerce transportation enterprises, food supply plants, light industry was going, or I could get into the ministry. That’s how I got into the Ministry. But I stressed that, true, I’m going into the ministry, but I’m not interested in joining the party. As you know, 98 percent of the employees in the Ministry were party members. I wound up in an office. I had two very sweet colleagues. Naturally, both were party members. When there were party meetings, I could go home. I liked it. They were very decent. Generally, at that time, office back-biting was common. Nobody plotted against me, because in this field, in internal commerce, I was alone. There weren’t any rivals. The point is, that I was responsible for the Internal Commerce Ministries’ 140 enterprises, and in all those 140 enterprises, they had one or two cars and one or two trucks. In those days, the Transportation Ministry was the authority in transportation. And they proscribed what kind of registration was needed. They sent them all to me. I held a technical review annually.
How can I put it? I have the entire area's inventory, both in terms of regulations and technical condition. In the 1960s, private persons could already buy personal cars. Not one bigwig came to me (because they knew that I’m familiar with the vehicle park): ’Tibor, we’d gladly give you an honorarium, for example, in Pecs. I like to buy a car for the food distribution plant and one for this and that, because I’m from Pecs. ’I’m sorry, but I don’t sell any information to any one.’ – I said. Nothing against you, but I just cannot be corrupted. My [monthly] pay was low, on the 20th or 25th [of the month], we always borrowed money from friends, but even so. I worked there in the ministry until 1970.
