4.5 billion TL paid from state coffers for public buildings
While restrictions on renting new buildings for public use were introduced with the announced austerity measures, the amount paid in rent for service buildings over the last 5 years is staggering. The government paid 4.5 billion TL in rent for service buildings between January 2019 and March 2024.
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The AKP government, which has not been short on luxury and ostentation in recent years, has shared new austerity measures with the public, shifting the burden of the crisis onto the shoulders of the citizens.
The austerity package stated that no new buildings should be rented on behalf of the public and that existing leases should be terminated according to a schedule.
According to the report in Birgün, after the package, which includes measures corresponding to only 3 percent of the current account deficit, eyes turned to the rent paid by the public for service buildings. During the AKP government, many properties owned by the public were sold for next to nothing.
Many public institutions, including the Meat and Milk Board (ESK), the State Hydraulic Works (DSİ), the State Railways (TCDD), the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK), and the Turkish Electricity Transmission Corporation (TEİAŞ), were reduced to being tenants. Hundreds of millions of liras in rent payments have left the state coffers almost every year. The rent payments of public administrations within the scope of the general budget for the six-and-a-half-year period covering January 2018 to March 2024 exceeded 4.5 billion TL. Many public institutions that previously provided services in buildings they owned have only been able to continue their public services in buildings they moved into by paying rent following the privatizations and sales carried out during the AKP era. Data from the Ministry of Treasury and Finance regarding the rent payments of public administrations within the scope of the general budget also revealed the validity of the criticisms that "the state has become a tenant."
4.5 BILLION TL IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS
According to official data, the public's service building rental expenditure totaled 4 billion 585 million 457 thousand TL for the entirety of 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023, as well as the January-March 2024 period. The public's service building rental expenditures by year are as follows:
• 2018: 392 million 924 thousand TL
• 2019: 559 million 564 thousand TL
• 2020: 559 million 564 thousand TL
• 2021: 543 million 750 thousand TL
• 2022: 916 million 180 thousand TL
• 2023: 1 billion 156 million TL
• 2024: (January-March): 457 million 395 thousand TL