Turkish Prime Ministry spends almost half of yearly budget in two months

Neşe Karanfil ANKARA

REUTERS Photo

Turkey’s Prime Ministry office has spent some 460.7 million Turkish Liras of its total yearly budget of around 1 billion liras in the first two months of the year, according to the latest budget realization figures of the Finance Ministry.

There is also as dramatic rise in the spending of the office compared to last year. While the Prime Ministry spent around 15.4 million liras in February 2014, the spending rose to 340.5 million liras in February 2015.

The ministry announces budget realizations every month, but it does not give details about how the money is spent.

The initial budget for the Prime Ministry office was 933.8 million liras for 2014. The office however finished the total amount by August 2014, so its allocation was increased to 2.4 billion liras. The office closed the year at around 2.3 billion liras of spending.

Some 1.3 billion liras was paid for the construction of the new presidential palace in Ankara, dubbed the “Ak Saray,” or “White Palace” in English, while a further $185 million was allocated for the presidential jet in 2015, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek told parliament’s Planning and Budget Commission on Nov. 4, 2014.

He said some 963 million liras were spent for the construction of the Ak Saray from the Prime Ministry budget in 2014, and a further 300 million liras of additional money was allocated for the palace in the Prime Ministry’s 2015 budget. The presidential office’s spending decreased to 13.2 million liras in February 2015 from around 16.7 million liras in the same month of last year.

There was also a dramatic increase in the spending amount from the covered budget, according to the latest figures from the ministry. While some 28.9 million liras were spent from the covered budget, the details of which are not announced, in February 2014, this amount rose to 214 million liras in February 2015, an increase of around 637 percent. A total of 323.9 million liras have been spent from the covered budget in the first two months of the year, while the same amount was around 133.6 million liras in the same period of last year.