They spent 125 million liras on driverless vehicles: AKP municipality ignores 'austerity'

It has emerged that another AKP-run municipality has failed to comply with the "public austerity" measures announced by Minister of Treasury and Finance Mehmet Şimşek and Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz.

According to a report by Politikyol; the AKP-run Eyyübiye Municipality opened a tender for 98 driverless vehicles, consisting mostly of automobiles. The vehicles leased in the tender included 48 automobiles, 30 light commercial vehicles, 8 4x4 or 4x2 pick-ups, and 1 transport vehicle. The remaining vehicles consisted of 4 minibuses, 3 tractors, 7 pickup trucks, 2 water tankers, and 1 fuel tanker.

Another notable detail in the tender specifications was that while automobile-type vehicles were leased for a period of 2 to 3 years, vehicles such as minibuses and construction machinery were leased for shorter durations.

THEY ELIMINATED SIX BIDS

A total of seven bids were submitted for the tender opened by the municipality.

However, six of these bids were eliminated, and the tender was awarded to a company named Giray Turizm. The owner of the company, which has 13 branches, is Şerif Dalgıç.

'İMAM HATİP' AWARD FOR DALGIÇ

Dalgıç had received an 'Imam Hatip' award at a ceremony attended by President and AKP Chairman Tayyip Erdoğan in December 2021.

The award ceremony for the 'One Hundred Philanthropists in the Hundredth Year' campaign, launched by the Gaziantep Governorship and Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality as part of the 100th-anniversary events of the liberation of Gaziantep from French occupation, was held at the Istanbul Haliç Congress Center; it was attended by figures including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Minister of Justice Abdülhamit Gül, Minister of National Education Mahmut Özer, Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül, and Metropolitan Mayor Fatma Şahin.  

At this ceremony, Dalgıç received an award for the Imam Hatip school he had built in the Şehitkâmil district of Gaziantep.