INSIGHT-Earth is gold: graft probe turns eyes to Turkey building boom
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/08/turkey-corruption-construction-idUSL6N0KG07720140108
The government’s critics say the legal framework surrounding the construction sector, a key driver of the economy, has been repeatedly watered down in recent years, creating loopholes that developers can exploit for profit.
Turkey’s Public Tender Act has been amended 31 times since the AK Party came to power, according to Oya Ozarslan, head of the local chapter of anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.
The changes put ever more sectors outside its scope, including urban development projects and a significant proportion of TOKI’s activity building housing.
“This law has become like a Swiss cheese,” Ozarslan said, estimating that close to half of government procurement fell outside the scope of the act.
“We know TOKI makes a lot of money but how? It should be transparent and it should be open to audit.”
TOKI had no immediate comment.
Under the motto “Building Turkey of the Future”, it is the government’s main urban development arm, charged with transforming shanty towns and developing mass housing projects, much of it through revenue-sharing deals with private companies.
An investigation from 2004 by the prime ministry’s own audit board, seen by Reuters, said TOKI’s revenue-sharing model was not fully transparent and public assets had been sold at below fair value. The opposition CHP accused the ruling AK Party in a 2011 report of using TOKI to transfer state property to firms close to the government, which AK denies.
“TOKI is not just building housing and hospitals, it is selling government land,” said Aykut Erdogdu, a CHP member of parliament who compiled the opposition party’s dossier. “We don’t know how they sell it, what the real value is.”