AKP-run Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality recovered public loss from employees: Loss is 1.6 million liras

The Court of Accounts examined the 2017 accounts of the AKP-run Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality.

It was determined that meal costs were not deducted from personnel, resulting in a public loss. Following this decision, it was ruled that the public loss of 1 million 681 thousand TL should be collected from two officials of the municipality. However, the Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, managed by AKP's Fatma Şahin, began collecting the loss from municipal personnel.

According to a report by İsmail Arı from BirGün; the All Municipal and Local Government Services Workers' Union took this practice of the municipality to court. The municipality argued that "the method of making deductions from salaries for the recovery of public loss was adopted, and that this practice was in accordance with legislation and the law."

TO BE REPAID WITH INTEREST

The Gaziantep 3rd Administrative Court emphasized that the practice was not in accordance with the law. In the Court's decision dated April 28, 2022, it was stated, "In accordance with the provision in Article 125 of the Constitution that 'The administration is liable to pay for damages arising from its own acts and actions,' the plaintiff's financial losses must be paid together with the legal interest to be accrued from the date of filing the lawsuit."

ONLY VALID BID

Uğur Kalkan, a former CHP member of the Şahinbey Municipal Council, stated in his explanation to BirGün, "We see once again why the AKP and AKP administrators are uncomfortable with the audits and decisions of institutions such as the Court of Accounts and the Council of State. Imagine that a tender of 7 million 760 thousand TL is organized. Six people purchase documents for this tender, but four people participate. And out of these four people, only one's bid is considered valid. If a tender with many participants in Gaziantep or any other city of ours drops to a single participant, one needs to stop and examine that tender."

1.6 MILLION TL LOSS

Saying, "A liability of 1 million 681 thousand TL is imposed on two members of the tender commission regarding the tender in question," CHP member Kalkan continued his words as follows: "Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality sets its sights on the personnel this time regarding this decision, which is their own mistake. It begins unfair and unlawful deductions under the name of 'Court of Accounts Ruling Meal'. These decisions are also being cancelled by administrative courts. As we see what they have done in a tender they conducted and in its aftermath, we are saddened on behalf of our city and our country. There is no need to look elsewhere for the reasons why Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality is so heavily in debt and paying interest as if it has fallen into the hands of loan sharks. Because the visible village needs no guide."