While debates on economic issues such as increasing taxes and the foreign trade deficit continue in Turkey, the Court of Auditors' report on the Presidency has revealed that the cleaning expenditure alone of the Presidential Palace built for Erdoğan is 2 million TL ($559,760) per annum.
The palace is notoriously called "Kaç-Ak Saray" in Turkish, meaning "Illegal Palace".
The salary of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has increased from 43,750 TL ($12,240) to 49,250 TL ($13,780) in 2016, according to the report. The Turkish President is on a monthly salary of 53,300 TL ($14,920) according to the 2017 budget. 'The Confidential Service Expenses', known as the Illegal Palace's "discretionary fund" and worth 150 million TL ($41,982,000) in 2015, was kept confidential in the 2016 report.
THE CONCEALED 'CONFIDENTIAL SERVICE'
It is noteworthy that 'the Confidential Service Expenses', known as "the Illegal Palace's discretionary fund" in the Court of Auditors' report on the Presidency in 2015, was not included in the 2016 report. The discretionary fund of the Presidency had been concealed by legal regulation on March 7, 2015. The regulation has provided for the allocations in the Presidential budget would be determined and enforced by presidential decree. This was considered as the concealed "confidential service" of the Presidency’s discretionary fund. Yet, the relevant item had been reflected in the report prepared by the Court of Auditors with an expenditure of 150 million TL in 2015.
THE SECRETS OF ERDOĞAN'S ILLEGAL PALACE
Many of the items the charts in the 2015 report of the Court of Auditors reflected were absent in the 2016 report. Items such as water consumption, heating and electricity expenses, and internet costs were kept confidential. Instead, a "purchase of goods and materials for consumption" item was identified, and it was stated that 26,489,093 TL (about $7,416,000) was spent on this item. According to the report, 63,822,525 TL ($17,870,307) has been spent on the service procurement item of the Palace, while 253,986 TL ($71,120) has been spent for treatment and funeral costs of the Presidency staff.
ANNUAL CLEANING EXPENSE OF THE ILLEGAL PALACE: 2 MILLION TL
Illegal Palace has spent a total of 2 million 160 thousands 927 TL ($605,063) on "medical and laboratory consumables" in 2016. The cleaning expenditures of the Palace is 2,048,921 TL (about $559,760). Transfer facilities used by the Presidency spent 728,935 TL for their tires, while the amount of 267,565 TL was spent on the "fuel, fuel additives and additive oils" item of the Presidency in 2015. This amount was reflected in the 2016 report as 327,488 TL.
ADDITIONAL 134 MILLION TL FOR INTELLIGENCE AGENTS
768 million 877 thousand 111 TL has been spent on the National Intelligence Service (MİT)’s personnel. This amount was 634,474,623 TL in the 2015 report. Thus, the amount of money spent on the National Intelligence Service has increased by 134,402,488 TL from 2015 to 2016.
Despite these huge expenditures for Illegal Palace, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) decided to impose tax increases on many things last week on the grounds of 'taking serious measures especially in security and defence expenditures.'
Since the Illegal Palace was constructed inside the Atatürk Forest Farm (AOÇ), a first-degree protected site established by the founder of the Republic of Turkey in 1925, several lawsuits were opened for the suspension of the construction. Hundreds of trees in the forest reserve were cut down during the construction. When Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that this vulgar monstrosity was actually illegal Turkish AKP government opted to continue with the project. Hence the palace is notoriously called "Kaç-Ak Saray" in Turkish, meaning "Illegal Palace".
