Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek Denies Allegations of Public Loss from 2017 Contracts
Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek announced that the allegations circulating on certain social media accounts, claiming “public loss from contracts made in 2017,” are unfounded. In a statement from the Ministry of Finance, it was clarified that during the agreements made by the Privatization Administration under the Privatization High Board Decision No. 2017/13, no public loss occurred, and all transactions were audited by the Court of Accounts.
The statement emphasized that to protect the value of the Turkish Lira and ensure standardization in public contracts, Decree Law No. 683 enabled public institutions to collect domestic payment obligations in foreign currency as Turkish Lira. This collection was based on the foreign exchange buying rate announced by the Central Bank on January 2, 2017, up until December 31, 2017, upon the debtor’s request.
Additional agreements were made with all applicants based on the interest rate applied to Treasury receivables. It was highlighted that all debts were timely and fully collected, calculated according to the exchange rate of that day.
The Ministry of Finance urged the public not to trust manipulative statements aimed at misleading them.
Source: Official Statement from the Ministry of Finance.