Parliamentary Inquiry by HDP MP Çelik About Missing EU Funds

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After it cannot be tracked down where and how 1.1 billion Euro of the fund provided by the European Union (EU) to Turkey for refugees has been spent and the Ministry of Family and Social Policies has refused to share information with the EU auditors regarding the details of the expenditures, Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Mardin MP Tuma Çelik brought the issue to parliamentary agenda yesterday (November 21).

Tuma Çelik submitted a parliamentary inquiry regarding the missing 1.1-billion-Euro fund granted to Turkey by the EU and directed a series of questions to Minister of Interior Süleyman Soylu, including:

"Who use these funds and for what purposes?"

* How much funding has been granted to your ministry as part of the refugee agreement signed by Turkey and the EU in 2016?

* What role does your ministry play in using these funds within the scope of this program? If it does play any part, for what purposes and via which institutions/ organizations were/ are the related funds used?

* How many refugees have benefited from the fund provided to Turkey by the EU as part of the agreement reached by the two parties in 2016?

* How many refugee camps are there on the borders of Turkey as part of the refugee agreement dated 2016 and where are these refugee camps? How many refugees from Syria live in these camps in total?

* Is it a true allegation that nine tenths of the projects undertaken by Turkey as part of the EU funds granted to the country for refugees cannot be completed on time? Are there any projects which are run by your ministry and cannot be completed on time? If yes, what is the evaluation of your ministry regarding the reasons of this lapse?

What happened?

The European Court of Auditors, which is responsible for auditing the financial conditions of the EU, has published a report regarding the funds that have been provided by the EU to Turkey for refugees.

The report dated November 13, 2018 has highlighted that the auditors of the European Court of Auditors met with officials from several ministries in Turkey, but, the Ministry of Family and Social Policies refused to share information with the auditors about who have benefited from the two projects initiated by the ministry as part of the program. (HA/SD)