Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's decision to exhibit official cars belonging to the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (İBB) at the commercial capital's Yenikapı Square has not only drawn public criticism on social media but it was also described yesterday as a neglect of duty by Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.
Commenting on İmamoğlu's claims about the waste of resources by the former municipal administration, Soylu said, "It is our responsibility area. If there is a waste of public resources, we will deal with it. The municipality's job is not show business. This should be pointed out and investigated if necessary."
He also said that the ongoing exhibition is an actual example of waste of public resources. "If you claim that ‘these are not necessary,' what you should is not to continue to waste public resources. Otherwise, you cause the continuation of the waste. If you display cars provided for public service, this is another problem. It is a neglect of duty," he added.
Mehmet Muş, the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) group deputy chairman, also commented on the exhibition saying, "We want to see these 1,717 official cars that the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality mentioned. If you cannot show and prove this; that means you are a liar."
Saying that the municipality collected all vehicles they could find including service cars, Muş added, "We want to see official cars used by the staff, not service cars."
Tevfik Göksu, the AK Party's group deputy chairman in the municipality, said, "If you remember, he mentioned 1,717 official cars during the election campaign. It seems that he decided to bring service cars working in the field when he could not find official cars used by the staff. All of these are service cars used in the field."
He also said that they collected service cars including health care and social service vehicles.
Istanbul mayor from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) said before the elections that he would exhibit 1,717 official cars belong to the municipality for people to see the waste of municipal resources. Since Thursday, official cars used by municipality staff or in municipality services started to be exhibited in the Yenikapı Square and it is expected to last until Sunday.
