CHP slams frequent changes in tender law

ISTANBUL

Main opposition deputy Öztrak has accused the government of changing legislation out of favoritism.

The main opposition party has criticized the Turkish government’s public procurement policies, claiming the excessive number of amendments made in the legislation made the system dysfunctional.

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy leader Faik Öztrak said the government had changed the public procurement legislation 113 times over the past year.

Commenting on the figures provided by Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek in response to a previous motion by the CHP deputy, Öztrak said information given by the minister laid bare that the Public Procurement Law adopted in 2002 had become completely dysfunctional.

He said the high frequency of amendments “strengthens the perception that the government changes legislations to enable certain people to win tenders or to ease terms.” According to figures provided by Şimşek, the code itself has been changed 32 times since 2002. In addition to those amendments made in the code, the government made changes in regulations and communiqués 81 times, which brought the number of changes to 113.

As the code consists of 70 articles, this reveals that some articles have been changed more than once, he added.