AKP district municipalities hold last-minute tenders on their way out
Multiple district municipalities in Istanbul run by the ruling AKP have held last-minute tenders and finalized procurements worth millions of Turkish liras before handing over their offices to the main opposition CHP administrations after the March 31 local elections.
Duvar English
The Tuzla and Üsküdar district municipalities of Istanbul, run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) have held various tenders and completed acquisitions days before handing over the administration to the successor main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
AKP lost a majority of its municipalities in the local elections of March 31. Newly elected mayors receive their certificates of election and take over the offices within a week of the elections.
The Tuzla district municipality under Şadi Yazıcı of the AKP put up one of its real estate on sale on April 2, before the elected CHP Mayor Ali Eren Bingöl could be instated.
The tender for the one-acre land worth 57.75 million Turkish liras (1.8 million dollars) will be held on April 30, according to the advert in the Official Gazette.
The municipality held additional tenders shortly before the elections and finalized all of them on April 2, revealed reporting by the online news outlet PolitikYol.
The tenders included acquisitions for “women’s watches” worth 1.8 million liras, “garden supplies” worth 62,4 million liras, and “gift baskets” worth 2.9 million liras.
Ekrem İmamoğlu, Mayor of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said he assigned investigators to the acquisitions and would follow the process closely during his inauguration on April 4.
The previous AKP administration of the Üsküdar district on Istanbul’s Anatolian side also finalized multiple acquisitions as late as April 2, two days before the newly elected mayor from the CHP, Sinem Dedetaş took over.
The acquisitions included “84,000 porcelain mugs” worth 4.7 million liras, and “pastries” worth 1.9 million liras.
Detailed information on the tenders is available on the Electronic Public Acquisitions Platform (EKAP).
In total, the AKP lost nine of the 24 district municipalities it had won in the 2019 local elections. The CHP holds 26 of the 39 districts of Istanbul as of March 31.