Discrepancies Continue To Surface Regarding Unemployment Fund

Amid a variety of discrepancies that have surfaced regarding Turkey's unemployment fund, opposition Nationalist Action Party (MHP) deputy chairman Ahmet Kenan Tanrıkulu said the fund is being improperly used for other purposes, according to a statement on Thursday.

Reports recently surfaced revealing that TL 2.2 billion from the fund has been spent. The fact that it was unclear where this money went was an indication that the money from the fund is being illicitly redirected, according to Tanrıkulu.

“Around 3.6 million unemployed citizens have only received TL 8 billion since the fund was established in 2002. The fund is being used for external purposes, on other budget expenditures and in other areas,” he said.

Moreover, different authorities have provided conflicting figures regarding how much money is in the fund, and no one has accounted for the contradictory figures: “The deputy prime minister [Ali Babacan] who is responsible for the economy said there was TL 70 billion in the fund, and a few days later the labor and social security minister [Faruk Çelik] announced this figure to be TL 79.1 billion. No one can account for the TL 9 billion discrepancy,” said the opposition party politician.

Unemployment figures for August hit double digits, the highest since February of this year. There were 2.94 million people unemployed as of August, as rates have stayed high throughout 2014, hovering around 9 and 10 percent. Youth employment hit 18.9 percent, the highest level since January 2011.

Tanrıkulu criticized the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), saying that its desire to establish full constitutional authority has scared off both domestic and foreign investors. He noted that for the past several years, per capita national income has not grown and Turkey has found itself in a middle-income trap.

He drew attention to the fact that short-term foreign debt in both the public and private sectors skyrocketed between 2002 and 2014, saying that there was only $900 million in public sector short-term foreign debt in 2002, but that the figure had ballooned to $18.9 billion by September of this year.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)