Academic Tarık Şengül and member of the Central Executive Committee of the Tüm Bel-Sen municipal services trade union, Satı Burunucu, discussed the continued presence on municipal subsidiary managements of people who had resigned from Municipality.
Derya KAYA
Ankara
With managers of municipal subsidiaries digging in their heels over Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor İmamoğlu’s call for them to resign, the subsidiaries are back in the news. Assessing the developments for Evrensel, Prof. Dr. H. Tarık Şengül of Middle Eastern Technical University’s Department of Political Science and Public Administration pointed out that a situation was being encountered in which an elected mayor had no say over two-thirds of his budget.
Pointing out that these subsidiaries that operate with a company mentality despite producing public services under municipal ownership are by plagued by many problems in terms of municipal services and workers’ working conditions, Satı Burunucu, member of the Central Executive Committee of the Tüm Bel-Sen municipal services trade union, stated that those in charge of these companies earn in the region of ten to fifteen thousand. Noting that some sixty thousand workers are employed at subsidiaries under the aegis of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality alone, Buruncu indicated that these workers lacked equal rights with workers on the municipal payroll.
Noting that municipalities have for a long time conducted business through the companies they have set up, Prof. Dr. Tarık Şengül said, “The purpose of this method is to conduct business speedily, with the minimum of oversight and under the logic of the market. We see the affair having actually ceased to be an intermediary route for municipalities and having become a means for doing business. Two-thirds of Istanbul Metropolitan’s expenses are made through companies.” Şengül commented, “We currently encounter a situation in which an elected mayor has no say over two-thirds of his budget. If we consider that the people elect mayors to decide how the budget is to be employed, the situation we encounter amounts to the suspension of democracy.”
Indicating that the company mentality which by-passes politics and the public-sector ethos had imposed its grip on municipalities, Şengül stressed that this current situation calls for a fresh assessment: “We encounter a situation in which municipal assembly members are brought onto company boards of directors in the interests of extra income and not to influence decisions.”
Noting that the logjam in question was not new, Şengül pointed to the issue of auditing at municipalities: “Initially, the companies were not audited by the Court of Account but the lack of auditing reached a point at which the Court of Account had to intervene. Likewise, subcontracting has reached a point at which subcontractors’ employees have become municipal staff. All these configurations need rethinking and the public sector and cooperative-style operations need to become local authorities’ main service production mechanism.”
For her part, Satı Burunucu, member of the Central Executive Committee of the Tüm Bel-Sen municipal services trade union, said that municipalities were the place where privatization practices were first initiated and these companies came into being. Noting that with regard to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality there were thirty companies like car park operator İSPARK and the Istanbul Gas Distribution Company that were affiliated to the deputy general secretaries’ offices in addition to such entities as Istanbul Water and Sewerage Administration and Istanbul Electric Tramway and Tunnel Company affiliated to the mayoralty, Burunucu revealed that some 60,000 workers were employed at these companies and indicated that these workers were regarded as being like public works but lacked equal rights with workers on the municipal payroll.
Indicating that the people serving on these companies’ boards of directors were individuals who served as deputy general secretaries and directors at municipalities, Burunucu commented, “These administrators earn ten to fifteen thousand by way of ‘attendance allowance.’ However, when we look at the workers, they are not even employed securely on the payroll.”
Saying, “These companies have also become one of the means for transferring funds to reactionary foundations,” Burunucu remarked, “They are unable to supply quality public services, and they also constantly borrow due to relationships of patronage, not because they provide such services as free car parks and natural gas.”
(Translated by Tim DRAYTON)
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