Opposition-run municipalities’ unpaid debts to Türkiye’s Social Security Institution (SGK) are reaching billions of liras, according to a report in the Sabah newspaper.
Although some municipalities run by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) also have outstanding debts, critics say opposition-run municipalities have more.
The issue was first brought up by Labor and Social Security Minister Vedat Işıkhan before the March 31 municipal elections, which ended with significant gains for the AK Party's rival main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP). Işıkhan has singled out the capital Ankara’s municipality run by the CHP as the mayoralty with the highest amount of debt.
Official figures have shown municipal companies have accrued the TL 96 billion (about $2.9 billion) premium debt rather than the city itself, Sabah’s report said, naming local administrations governed by the CHP as owing the highest amount at TL 79 billion.
The AK Party often accuses CHP-run municipalities of wasting their resources instead of improving public services and economic incompetence. The opposition municipalities also faced criticism of nepotism following the March 31 local elections when it emerged that several mayors appointed their next of kin to top positions in city halls.
All 411 municipalities, metropolitan and provincial, run by the CHP have TL 65.1 billion in total debts, the report said, meaning 68% of all municipal debt belong to CHP mayors despite CHP municipalities consisting of 29% of all municipalities in Türkiye.
Similarly, 16 of top 20 municipalities with the most debt to the SGK are CHP municipalities, so are the 39 municipalities in the top 50.
The CHP operates 35 metropolitan municipalities out of 81 provinces in Türkiye, whose total debt tops TL 26.2 billion, 2.5 times the debt of 46 other provincial and metropolitan municipalities.
There are 14 municipalities that owe the SGK at least TL 1 billion in premium debts and 11 of these are run by the CHP, totaling TL 26.6 billion.
The top five CHP municipalities with the highest debt own 45 indebted companies, including eight in southern Adana, 11 in the capital Ankara, 15 in Istanbul and 10 in western Izmir.
Türkiye’s economic and cultural powerhouse, Istanbul’s municipality, which has been ruled by CHP’s popular Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu since 2019, owes TL 62.9 million in total debt while its premium debt to the SGK is TL 3.2 billion, Sabah’s report said.
"It is wrong to funnel the financial resources to other venues instead of paying the debts that are future insurance and outcome of the labor municipality employees exerted," Işıkhan said last month, adding that the ministry was ready to help municipalities pay the debts through restructuring and different payment plans.