Corruption and privatization always goes hand in hand. Sebahattin Aydın was appointed recently to be the deputy Health Minister in Turkey. Following the pattern that has become the norm in Turkey, information on corruption surrounding his family immediately surfaced. This corruption seen around the health care system is one of the reasons Turkey failed miserably […]
Corruption and privatization always goes hand in hand.
Sebahattin Aydın was appointed recently to be the deputy Health Minister in Turkey. Following the pattern that has become the norm in Turkey, information on corruption surrounding his family immediately surfaced. This corruption seen around the health care system is one of the reasons Turkey failed miserably in its response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement in the parliament, the opposition deputy Murat Emir claimed that, along with numerous contracts, the new e-nabız, a government health recording web site, was given to Aydin’s son’s corporation.
Corruption is an integral part of privatizations for sure, however, the level seen in Turkey is jaw dropping. And when it is deep in the health care sector it becomes outright deadly.
The contract for the government site e-nabız was a no-bid, secret contract that was straight out given to Aydın’s son with no other bids accepted or competing.
Deputy Emir, in his Assembly expose, said these contracts were just a boondoggle for the families of the appointed bureaucrats. Needless to say, the amounts involved are in millions of dollars.
Emir also added that the AKP government left no justice in the country to complain, or even open a legal case about these corruptions. He was referring to the government appointed judges who routinely reject cases like these and even bring bans on mentioning corruption in papers, TV or the social media. When such a ban is ordered by a judge in Turkey, anyone even mentioning corruption could end up in prison.
The deputy claimed Sebahattin Aydın’s wife had established the family corporation and immediately started getting no-bid contracts from the government. These became a problem when the news started to circulate. The wife then ended her ownership of the corporation. However, this time the son became the partner, and the million-dollar government contracts kept on flowing. Most of health care data processing systems were awarded to this corporation.
Now the Assembly members are asking how this corruption, theft, and bribery system corresponds to the so-called pristine system of Islam that the government is promoting. However, as everyone guessed, there has not been even a single attempt to answer the questions by the Ministry of Health in Turkey.
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