Diyanet’s record budget on agenda of Turkish parliament, Syriac MP for Mardin Çelik submits written questions

@gazetesabro – More and more details about the Turkish budget for the year 2022 start to appear. A record budget of 16.1 billion Turkish lira (1.6 million dollar) is allocated to the Diyanet, Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs. The overall majority of this budget, 15.5 billion lira, is earmarked for personnel costs and social insurance premium payments. 373 million is allocated for the purchase of goods and services.

Independent MP Tuma Çelik put the proposed Diyanet record budget on the agenda of the Turkish Grand National Assembly and submitted parliamentary questions to Vice President Fuat Oktay. In his submitted questions, Çelik states; “In its 2020 audit reports, the Court of Accounts determined that there is no real market mechanism procurements, that the institution [Diyanet] is acting against the law by making direct purchases, and that there are irregularities in wrongly held tenders.”

MP Tuma Çelik’s parliamentary questions to Vice President Fuat Oktay are as follows:

• How many companies have been awarded direct tenders in the last budget year?
• Which companies have received direct tenders in the last budget year?
• Has any investigation been carried out within the institution [Diyanet] regarding the irregularities identified by the Court of Accounts in its audit reports?
• How many rental cars are in use by the Presidency of the Directorate of Religious Affairs?
• What kind of payments does the Directorate of Religious Affairs make to non-profit organizations?
• Does the Presidency of the Directorate of Religious Affairs provide any financial aid to churches and synagogues that have legal status as places of worship?
• Is the Presidency of the Directorate of Religious Affairs have or is it preparing any legislative work to pay all the expenses of churches and synagogues that have legal status as places of worship?

Diyanet İşleri Başkanlığı bütçesine ilişkin olarak, Cumhurbaşkanı Yardımcısı Fuat Oktay'ın yanıtlaması istemiyle soru önergesi verdik. pic.twitter.com/TA8De80e27

— Tuma Çelik (@tuma_celik) October 22, 2021