OUR MUNICIPALITY IS GETTING MORE FROM OUR STAFF"
While it is known that staff at many municipalities are not receiving their entitlements and are struggling with all kinds of problems, we asked Mayor Aziz Kaya about the current financial position at Lefke Municipality, which was taken over with 50 million TL of debt.
Mayor of Lefke Aziz Kaya, who took over Lefke Municipality with 50 million TL of debt, spoke to our newspaper about the municipality’s current position and staff entitlements. He explained that on taking office in July 2014 he first settled in full all outstanding entitlements — the 2012 holiday bonus and the 1 May allowance, as well as overtime payments outstanding since 2011 — in order to enable staff to work more productively.
"STAFF SUBSISTENCE ALLOWANCES WENT UNPAID FOR YEARS"
Noting that current social insurance contributions for staff had begun to be paid from 14 January, Aziz Kaya said: "from this month, under the most recent law, the state contribution to municipalities has been increased and municipalities must now make these payments. If they do not, the Treasury will transfer those amounts to the relevant department." Stating that the subsistence allowance had gone unpaid to staff for years despite being signed into the collective agreement, Mayor Aziz Kaya explained that they began by giving staff all such entitlements.
"OUR MUNICIPAL BUILDING IS STILL STANDING"
Asked about the current financial position of the municipality, taken over with 50 million TL of debt, Mayor Aziz Kaya said: "With its current finances, our municipality is still standing." On the municipality’s large inherited debts, Mayor Kaya gave the following information:
"It will be restructured"
"There are large debts inherited from the past. These are debts to Social Insurance, the Provident Fund and the Tax Office. There is a law before the Assembly on this. It concerns all municipalities, and once it is passed there will be a restructuring so that they can be paid over the long term.
When we took over, the total debt was around 50 million. There were debts written improperly with future dates. There were cheques written up to December 2016. For that reason we were unable to receive the state contribution for two months when we took over. Even so, we paid our staff’s salaries on time from our own resources in those months, and began to get more from staff whose problems had been resolved," he added.
