Pro-gov't firms label rivals in tenders part of ‘parallel state'

Certain business owners close to the government are now targeting their public tender rivals by labeling them as being part of a "parallel state” -- a veiled reference by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the Hizmet movement -- Turkish media reported on Sunday.

The Taraf daily on Sunday cited a leaked letter of complaint by a company, believed to have close ties with the government, in a report that the company tried to pull the rug out from under a rival firm after it won a public tender by alleging that this rival is affiliated with the Hizmet movement, Turkey's largest Islamic civil society group. The daily said the pro-government firm, S.İ., was competing with another Turkish firm, M.İ., in a tender for the maintenance of the telephone systems at the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.

M.İ. won the tender and the pro-government S.İ. reportedly started looking for ways to have the tender called off or have the rival firm be disqualified. The pro-government firm sent a long letter to Family and Social Policy Minister Ayşenur İslam and her deputies, explaining how loyal it is to Erdoğan's government and also how dangerous it would be to let the communication system maintenance be done by a “parallel company.” The letter revealed by Taraf also includes portions where S.İ. criticizes the bureaucrats in charge of the tender process at the Ministry of Family and Social Policy.

The daily claims that the ministry has launched an investigation into the allegations in the letter regarding the tender.

Observers have said that the latest allegations by Taraf might reveal the extent of what is being called a “witch-hunt” at public offices, something that has intensified following a corruption probe that went public on Dec. 17. The Taraf report says that the pro-government firm in the telephone systems tender also alleged that the winning firm would hack the phones of the ministry.

Erdoğan has repeatedly accused those who are politically dissident of cooperating with foreign powers to wiretap his personal phone calls. The prime minister, however, failed to provide concrete proof as to who performed such wiretappings. He had also promised to “unearth” when and how exactly these wiretappings occurred, but no such evidence has been made public.

Intervention in public tenders by pro-government firms is not new in Turkey, but it has become more commonplace, especially following the Dec. 17 corruption probe that provoked a widespread hunt against political dissent. In January 2013, Erdoğan's government said it had awarded a ship project to Turkish Koç Holding, a decision that was opposed by local bidder Sedef Gemi İnşaat A.Ş. Sedef's owners are known for their close links to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and filed a complaint in June of last year with the Prime Ministry Inspection Board, putting forth allegations of unfair tender practices.

The government later changed its mind on the ship project tender in September 2013 and awarded it to Sedef and its Spanish partner, a move that followed earlier tension between Koç Holding and Erdoğan, who criticized the holding for supporting last summer's anti-government Gezi Park protests and had warned that all supporters of the protests “would pay the price.”

Published on Sunday's Zaman, 11 May 2014, Sunday