Erdoğan had targeted CHP municipalities: It turns out the AKP ignored the Court of Accounts regarding SGK debts

AKP Chairman and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who emerged from the March 31 Local Elections with a defeat, targeted CHP-run municipalities over their SGK (Social Security Institution) debts. With Erdoğan's announcement that 'collection at the source' of SGK premium debts would begin, a new polemic has started between the government and the opposition.

Sözcü columnist Saygı Öztürk pointed out that the AKP responded to the Court of Accounts' 2017 report on SGK payments by stating, “There is a legislative obstacle.” Stating, “The government, while in control of the municipalities, allowed the problem to grow by not collecting the debts owed to the SGK, and left this huge bomb in the hands of the CHP,” Öztürk asked, “Why did you remain a spectator to the accumulation of such a large debt until now?”

The relevant sections of Saygı Öztürk's column are as follows:

“In the Court of Accounts' 2017 report, the debts not paid to the SGK were addressed comprehensively. The report stated that the premium debts of municipalities could not be collected and that this issue posed a serious risk. At that time, the AKP government, which held the majority of municipalities, responded to the findings of the Court of Accounts by saying, 'There is a legislative obstacle.' Since the AKP has the majority in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and can immediately pass any law it wants, why didn't it do so if a legal regulation was required? Why would they? Back then, the majority of the municipalities were held by the ruling party.”

“Although the Court of Accounts addressed the same issue in detail in 2020, 2021, and 2022 and warned the government, the problem continued to grow and remain a serious risk for the SGK. Only when the municipalities passed into the hands of the CHP did the government, which had turned a deaf ear to the warnings of the Court of Accounts for years, remember the SGK's receivables from the municipalities. Of course, it should remember, but why did you remain a spectator to the accumulation of such a large debt until now?”

“The government, while in control of the municipalities, allowed the problem to grow by not collecting the debts owed to the SGK. And when it lost the municipalities, it left this huge bomb in the hands of the CHP. Its current step is to pull the pin and run away. Are we surprised? Of course not.”