Turkey world champ in official auto fleet

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

This photo shows official cars in front of the headquarters of a public body. Hürriyet photo

Turkey’s public sector has not decreased the number of vehicles and houses it owns, Şükrü Kızılot, a daily Hürriyet columnist, said yesterday.

Turkey’s public sector has had the highest number of vehicles and houses in the world for years, according to Kızılot, adding that the numbers have only increased for years despite government promises to lower them.

The Turkish public sector, which has more than 90,000 vehicles, strikingly surpasses countries like Japan with 10,000, Britain with 12,000 and Germany with 11,000 vehicles, Kızılot said, citing Finance Ministry data.

The number of houses that are given to public servants to use for limited periods of time decreased by merely 1 percent year-on-year in 2012 and is still more than 235,000.

The Security General Directorate has the highest number of houses with more than 46,000, followed by the Education Ministry with about 41,600 houses.