The probe starts once the man it concerns is no longer in the room

The story

Metro reports that Hungary is to investigate a £340million deal with Chinese car maker BYD negotiated by its former foreign minister, after he quit as an MP to take a job at the firm. New premier Péter Magyar, an ally of ex-PM Viktor Orbán, said the minister had handed BYD "hundreds of billions in public money, diplomatic support and state infrastructure." A probe will assess the burden the deal has left on Hungarian taxpayers. The minister did not comment.

The reframe

The timeline does the explaining the announcement doesn't. The deal, the exit, and now the investigation arrive in that order, and the order is the story. Nobody investigated the arrangement while the man who negotiated it still held the office that made him accountable for it. The scrutiny began once he had already moved to the company on the other side of the deal, past the point where a finding against him would have cost him the position he no longer holds. A probe launched after the departure can still be genuine. It can also, just as easily, be the version of accountability that costs nothing to announce, because there is no longer a minister in post to remove.