Main opposition submits motion against Turkish PM Erdoğan

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

The CHP submitted a censure motion against Erdoğan over the privitization of BAŞKENTGAZ. AA photo

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) submitted a censure motion against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the privatization of Başkent Doğalgaz (BAŞKENTGAZ), the natural gas provider for Ankara, claiming he had led both the people and the public authority to suffer damage by approving the tender.

Three unsuccessful tenders had been launched in 2007 for the privatization of 80 percent of BAŞKENTGAZ and, in the fourth tender in January this year, the highest bid offered was $1.16 billion, CHP Ankara deputy Levent Gök and 50 of his colleagues from the CHP said in their motion introduced on May 10.

“The public loss to emerge from selling BAŞKENTGAZ at such low price – its market value is much higher – is exceedingly large. It is very clear that the prime minister Erdoğan, as opposed to his own words, must share with the public the bargaining that resulted in the tender of BAŞKENTGAZ, the second-biggest natural gas distributor of Turkey, being approved, and he must give an account of it,” the CHP deputies said in their motion on May 10.

In February Erdoğan had noted that an offer of around $1.5 billion had previously been received, meaning that Torunlar Gıda’s $1.16 billion offer for BAŞKENTGAZ should be reviewed.