Record waste in the public sector
Despite the crisis that has condemned millions of citizens to poverty, the public sector has opened its taps even wider. In five months, 9.1 billion Turkish lira was spent on rent and 583.8 million Turkish lira on representation expenses, while 5.5 billion Turkish lira was spent from the secret service expenditure item, described as ‘Erdoğan's secret coffers’.
The deepening economic crisis in Turkey has not prevented excessive spending from the central budget. Expenditures on representation and promotion, described as the public sector's largest wasteful expense, and expenditures from the ‘Secret Service Expenses’ item used by the Presidency have reached record levels. The public sector's interest expenses for the January-May period reached 1 trillion TL.
Expenditures made from the budget during the January-May period have been revealed. The public sector's interest expenses reached record levels. According to data from the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, 110 billion 831 million 440 thousand TL was paid from the budget for interest in May. The total expenditure on interest in the January-May 2025 period was recorded as 834 billion 568 million 870 thousand TL.
EXCESSIVE RENTS
Rental expenses, which could not be prevented by austerity measures, were also reflected in the financial reports. It was learned that the amount of money spent from the budget on rents between January and May was 9 billion 116 million 147 thousand TL. Of the total 9.1 billion TL paid for rentals, 1 billion 765 million 332 thousand TL was for vehicle rental expenses. The amount paid from the treasury for the total rental of public service buildings was recorded as 1 billion 358 million 889 thousand TL. The public sector also paid 1 billion 156 million 673 thousand TL for aircraft rental expenses.
Representation and promotion expenses, which the economic crisis that has condemned millions of citizens to poverty in Turkey has been unable to stop, continued unabated in May. The 316 million 94 thousand TL in representation expenses signed in May was recorded as the highest amount for the January-May period. It was noted that the total public expenditure on representation and promotion for the January-May 2025 period amounted to 583 million 865 thousand TL.
THE PALACE THAT EATS UP MONEY
The size of the expenditure made from the ‘Secret Service Expenses’ category, one of the most attention-grabbing expenditure items in the central budget and described as ‘an amount whose account cannot be questioned,’ also drew attention. It was reported that expenditures from the ‘unaccountable secret service expenses’ category, referred to in public discourse as ‘President Erdoğan's secret treasury,’ reached 5 billion 529 million 377 thousand TL during the January-May period. The secret service expenses, formerly known as ‘hidden allocations,’ are as follows by month:
• January: 1 billion 513 million 104 thousand TL
• February: 961 million 631 thousand TL
• March: 795 million 400 thousand TL
• April: 1 billion 639 million 989 thousand TL
• May: 569 million 253 thousand TL
REVENUE COLLECTED FROM THE PUBLIC
In the January-May period of 2025, 4 trillion 6 billion 527 million TL in taxes were collected from citizens. The distribution of the total 4 billion TL in tax revenue by category is as follows:
Excise Tax (ÖTV): 679 billion 8 million TL
Value Added Tax (KDV): 567 billion 804 million TL
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled “Kamuda israf rekoru” published in BirGün newspaper on June 17, 2025.
