Turkish presidency paid $4 million to foreign advisers: report

The Turkish presidency’s investment unit has paid approximately $4 million to foreign advisers employed at its branches abroad during the last three years, the Duvar daily reported on Thursday, citing audit reports by the Turkish Court of Accounts.

The Investment Office, a special budget body subordinated to the Turkish Presidency, was established with a presidential decree in 2018 to “promote investments that will speed up the economic development of Turkey.”

Drawing its funds from the presidency, the office paid TL 14,269,272 ($1.6 million) to foreign advisers employed at its branches in the US, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, China, South Korea, Spain, Italy, Japan, Qatar, Malaysia, Singapore and Saudi Arabia in 2020, with the amount paid to these advisers in 2018, 2019 and 2020 totaling TL 35,500,112 ($4 million). 

The office hired 20 advisers at its branches abroad, but no information on the breakdown by country was provided in the audit report.

In 2020 the Investment Office paid TL 34,907,557 ($3.9 million) to its 160 employees, and the total funds it spent from the presidency’s budget amounted to TL 88,153,728 ($9.9 million) in 2020.

The duties of the office include “supporting technology-intensive and high value-added investments that create employment and following up and speeding up all investment stages on behalf of investors.”