İmamoğlu Asks Why Municipality Transferred 20-25 Million Lira to a TRT TV Series

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İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu answered the questions of Erdoğan Aktaş at a live program on Haber Global last evening (September 17). Some highlights from his remarks are as follows:

Redundant vehicles on display in Yenikapı

"First of all, can we talk about a small or big extravagance? We have returned 1,730 vehicles because they were redundant. Our certificate of election was taken back on May 5. From this date to June 23 [İstanbul repeat elections], 514 vehicles had already been returned.

"They say that they are not luxurious cars... The brands and prices of 1,000 of them were high. We have taken 1,250 vehicles out of the system. The total amount of extravagance of these 1,250 vehicles is 50 million TRY. 250 million lira in 5 years... It means 125 kindergartens. What does it mean? It means providing our 13-14 thousand children with preschool education.

"We have saved 350 million lira in total with what we did about these cars. This figure accounts for one-year budget of a district on the scale of Büyükçekmece. We are correcting a mistake. They ask us whether we will launch an investigation. If there is a mistake, if the law is compatible, will we stop following it? We will, of course, launch an investigation.

Extravagance at state channel TRT

"Why would İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality transfer 20-25 million lira to a TRT series? Is it a job of the municipal corporations to sponsor a TV series? TVs take ads for that and earn money. If we save it from the expenditures made beyond all question and put this money back in the pockets of İstanbulites, the first person who will applaud us for that is Dear President.

"The municipal budget for 2019 foresees an expenditure of 23.9 billion TRY for İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. With the savings measures that we have taken, we will make an expenditure a bit over 20 billion TRY by the end of the year. Even though we were not in office in the first six months, we have still saved around 3.5 billion TRY so far.

Dismissals from the municipality

"Why would you hire people 20-25 days before March 31 [local] elections? The number of people hired between March 31 and June 23 is 1,558. I was in charge for 18 days, right?

"What did I do? I did not employ a single person. You employed thousands of people after our certificate of election was taken back in May, based on what grounds? It is an election-oriented move. Of course, I feel sorry for the innocent people demonstrating, but we did not do them anything wrong. The ones who did them wrong were those who hired them in electoral period.

"The number of people employed one month before the March 31 election is 820. The election was on March 31, you hired new people on March 29, what is that supposed to mean? I gave an instruction in Beylikdüzü in September and told them, 'You will not hire anyone except when it is urgent'.

"Therefore, we did not aggrieve the ones who are demonstrating, what aggrieved people is that process when redundant people were hired without any job advertisements or public announcements. 2,378 people were employed and 1,300 people were dismissed.

"130 thousand people discharged by Statutory Decrees have been banned from working as civil servants, 46 people committed suicide. I mean, these process will proceed properly...

"Then, they will come and talk on and on about this process, the MPs will come and put up a show. We have records documenting how an MP receive a salary from us. I have promised the people of İstanbul to be just, I have told them that I will eliminate partisanship." (TP/SD)