Turkish Senior Opposition Submits Parliamentary Question on Turkey's Foreign Aid

Left Turkey Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Right CHP deputy Osman Korutürk 

A deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has submitted a parliamentary question directed at Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu about Turkey's provision of financial aid to foreign countries.

CHP deputy Osman Korutürk submitted the parliamentary question asking Davutoğlu to provide details of Turkey's financial aid to foreign countries and whether that aid has achieved its purpose and was received by the countries concerned.

Korutürk asked Davutoğlu for a written response. The question also noted that “the concealing of the yearly audit reports prepared by the Court of Accounts from the opposition during the discussions on the 2014 budget in Parliament and the Dec. 17 corruption scandal in which four ministers were involved have raised questions about foreign aid provided by the government under the name of public expenditure.

“There are serious doubts about whether the financial aid has been received by Somalia, where accountability of the government is doubtful and where the financial transaction does not work due to the lack of banking and auditing mechanisms and where a corruption scandal took place in 2013.”

Korutürk referred to a Reuters report published in mid-February stating that Turkish and Somali government officials said financial assistance to Somalia had ceased at the end of 2013 and that there were no immediate plans to resume it.

After the report, Turkey pledged to maintain direct budgetary support this year for the war-ravaged East African country. It is not clear how much money Turkey donated to Somalia in 2013.

“The report states that the Turkish government has provided a substantial amount of aid to Somalia and that due to the lack of banking mechanisms in the country this aid was provided in the form of direct cash, and that Turkey cut off this aid at the end of 2013 without presenting any reason. It also stated that it was not clear how much cash Turkey donated to Somalia in 2013, when the government's budget totaled $110 million. However, the report also says that Somalia's former central bank chief, Abdusalam Omer, noted that during his seven-month tenure the support amounted to $4.5 million per month, which he said was paid in cash to the central bank,” stated Korutürk's parliamentary question.

The questions Korutürk addressed to Davutoğlu were as follows: “What is the total amount of direct budgetary aid to Somalia? How much of this amount was delivered by hand in cash? How was the aid that was provided to a country in which the banking system does not work recorded? Does the Somali government provide an account to Turkey with details on how it has used that aid? Is this aid controlled by the Court of Accounts?”

The last question that Korutürk addressed to Davutoğlu was whether the ceasing of aid to Somalia had any link to the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab, which carried out a bombing attack on the Turkish mission in Mogadishu last July?

Turkey is a key ally of the Somali government. Its vast humanitarian aid effort at the height of the 2011 famine endeared the country to many Somalis, especially as Ankara continued to build hospitals and dispatch aid across the East African nation.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)