Trustee asks deceased municipal council member for written-off water debt interest

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Siirt Municipality, governed by a trustee, has requested that Berivan Helen Işık and Peyman Dara Turhan, the dismissed co-mayors of the Kurdish-majority southeastern province from the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), and 23 municipal council members pay compensation for the damages caused by "writing off the default interest of outstanding water bills."

Ahmet Bülbül, the Vice Mayor of Siirt Municipality, which is currently headed by Siirt Governor Osman Hacıbektaşoğlu, has sent a written notification to the related 25 people and asked them to pay 761 thousand 908 Turkish Lira (TRY) in total, namely the written-off 90 percent of the default interest of 2,413 subscribers' unpaid water bills (861 thousand 956 TRY in total).

While an IBAN number is also written on the notification for the money transfer, the 25 people have been given 30 days to pay the money.

Of the ones whom Bülbül has sent the notifications to is also Mehmet Zekeriya Çığır, the Siirt municipal council member from the HDP who lost his life due to a heart attack on January 25, 2021.

CLICK - Interior Ministry probes Siirt Municipality for writing off default interest of water bills

Deceased Mehmet Zekeriya Çığır

Council of State's decision not awaited

Dara Turhan, the dismissed Co-Mayor of Siirt, has recalled that they applied to the Council of State and lashed out at the attempts to make them pay a compensation for the written-off water debt interest.

"The trustee administration of the Siirt Municipality has hurriedly issued a notification without waiting for the result of our application to the Council of State," Dara Turhan has told bianet, briefly adding, "They have apparently indebted the Siirt Municipality a lot, they are in an urgent need of money. They cannot even tolerate the ongoing legal proceedings."

Noting that they, the current administration, also abided by the council decision regarding the payment of the water debts, Turhan has said:

"As per the same Municipal Council decision, they launched campaigns and collected reduced fees. Several municipalities across Turkey gave similar decisions at their own councils and put them into practice.

"We, back then, made it easier to collect the outstanding water bills and brought about public good and citizens' satisfaction. As per the legal regulations, our interlocutor is not the Siirt Municipality with regard to the development of the issue at hand. Exceeding its authority by issuing this notification, the Siirt Municipality has acted as the Council of State."

What happened?

The Ministry of Interior launched an investigation against dismissed Siirt Co-Mayors Berivan Helen Işık and Peyman Dara Turhan and 23 other municipal council members in Turkey's eastern province of Siirt, asking "why they wrote off the default interest of outstanding water bills."

The investigation was launched following the decision taken by the Siirt municipal council on December 3, 2019. With this decision, the municipal council wrote off 761 thousand 908 Turkish Lira (TRY), which accounts for 90 percent of the default interest of 2,413 subscribers' unpaid water bills of 861 thousand 956 TRY between January 6 and July 6, 2020.

The decision to write off the default interest of citizens' unpaid water bills was also supported by the municipal council members of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Meanwhile, a trustee was appointed to the Siirt Provincial Municipality on May 22, 2020.

Learning of this incident, the Civil Inspection Board launched an inquiry regarding the issue. On September 4, 2020, the Board asked for a permission for investigation from Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

Süleyman Soylu gave the requested permission to the Governor's Office of Siirt on February 22, 2021. The Co-Mayors and Municipal Council members were asked for their defense. In response to this, Dara Turhan and the ones accompanying him applied to the Council of State and said that the decisions taken at the Municipal Council were lawful.

Appointed trustee launched the same campaign

Nearly two months after the investigation, the municipality, governed by the appointed trustee-mayor, launched a similar campaign that foresaw writing off 90 percent of the default interests of outstanding property, environment, announcement and advertisement taxes and water bills.

Osman Hacıbektaşoğlu, both the Governor and Mayor of Siirt, announced that if the applications were made by August 31, 2021, the default interests would be written off, which was also announced to the public on advertising sign boards put all across the province.

CLICK - Trustee continues debt relief campaign that dismissed HDP mayors are investigated for

(HA/SD)