Ekrem İmamoğlu met with Minister Işıkhan: 'As of Monday...'

Following President Erdoğan's 'shake-up' instruction, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security pressed the button, and foreclosure proceedings were initiated against municipalities with debts to the SGK.

The request for an appointment made by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) and Union of Municipalities of Turkey (TBB) Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu to discuss the issue with Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan was met with a positive response.

İmamoğlu met with Minister of Labor and Social Security Vedat Işıkhan in Ankara along with his delegation.

Making a brief statement to the press after the meeting, İmamoğlu stated that the meeting went well, saying, "Our Minister welcomed us with a serious delegation."

İmamoğlu said the following:

"We met with our Minister of Labor and Social Security today. We had requested an appointment from them regarding the deductions and practices related to SGK premium debts. We shared with them items such as how we can create opportunities for all municipalities in Turkey with a delegation we formed, how a public institution can pay its premium debts to another public institution, the SGK, and how the process can be defined in a reasonable manner. Our Minister welcomed us with a serious delegation that included other officials. We exchanged views. A committee, which some of our expert friends will also join, will most likely be established here as of Monday to discuss how we can reach this consensus in principle. I also expressed the following to them; I stated that it is not possible to pay these debts, which have existed for many years and have accumulated regardless of the party, in one go. In this context, we conveyed that it would be good to make a plan that discusses not only the past but also what steps can be taken to overcome this period, which is also economically difficult for the next 1-1.5 years. We reached a consensus. I hope these studies, which will begin on Monday, will yield a healthy result. If they are available, we will come together with them. We will fulfill our responsibility to announce this to both the media and the municipalities. We also conveyed that different arguments could be developed. We also stated that debts should be at a payable level by looking at the budget."