A corruption investigation into public tenders that netted a mayor also uncovered links of the prime suspect to companies run by Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB). A report by Sabah newspaper says companies owned by the suspect, identified as Aziz Ihsan Aktaş, were awarded tenders worth hundreds of millions of Turkish liras between 2019 and 2024.
Aktaş was among 40 suspects detained in operations as part of the investigation earlier this week. Six other suspects remain at large. The businessman is the second high-profile figure in the case after Rıza Akpolat, mayor of Istanbul’s upscale Beşiktaş district. Legal proceedings are underway for suspects, including top bureaucrats of municipalities. The Sabah report says along with Beşiktaş municipality, the municipality of Esenyurt also awarded contracts to Aktaş’s companies. Esenyurt’s mayor, Ahmet Özer, was arrested last year in another case regarding his alleged links to the PKK terrorist group. Both Akpolat and Özer were candidates of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in last year’s municipal elections.
Aktaş and several other suspects are accused of bribing municipal officials in return for lucrative contracts.
Along with district municipalities, IBB’s own companies awarded contracts to Aktaş’s companies, though it is unclear whether it resulted from bribery. Sabah newspaper’s report says Aktaş won seven tenders from IETT, a municipal company that runs Istanbul’s mass transportation services, while an asphalt production company of IBB awarded five contracts to Aktaş’s companies.
IETT was the main source of income for Aktaş, pointing out that his companies were the only other winners of contracts worth more than TL 2.2 billion ($62 million). Another winner of contracts was a company whose financial adviser is Özgür Karabat, deputy chair of the CHP whose candidate, Ekrem Imamoğlu, has won successive municipal elections since 2019.
In one case, a company owned by Aktaş won three tenders from IBB’s natural gas company to provide rental vehicles. Sabah says 31 companies sought to participate in tenders, while 10 reached the final stage of the tender process. However, the municipality somehow canceled the applications of those companies and awarded Bilginay Cleaning Company, owned by Aktaş.
Media outlets reported that the investigation revealed that Beşiktaş Municipality awarded 17 tenders to companies owned by Aktaş and his relatives in the past five years. Investigators also discovered that a vehicle owned by Akpolat was sold to a company owned by Aktaş for far higher than its average price and was sold online to a third party.
Aktaş and other suspects are accused of preparing tender application documents with their own conditions and giving them to municipal officials. Officials, in return, launched tender processes where only suspects’ companies could fulfill conditions. In one tender, the municipality specifically asked for a condition only a company Aktaş owned could fulfill and, thus, eliminated the competition.
Reports say cash used in bribery was transported in garbage trucks operated by Beşiktaş municipality.
