Kıb-Tek slammed for tripled debts

THE former head of Kıb-Tek has blasted the electricity authority’s current management for “incomprehensible” borrowing that has seen its TL debts more than triple in six months.

Former board president Hasan Çetin Erçen said he had overseen a reduction in Kıb-Tek debt from 200 million TL to 70 millon TL before handing over the reins in February, but that the figure had now soared to 240 million TL.

He blamed hard currency borrowing in tandem with the TL crisis.

Mr Erçen said: “As if the 50 per cent hike in electricity prices imposed on the citizens were not enough, there has been borrowing to the tune of 170 million TL, which is incomprehensible.

“What’s strange is that despite the Central Bank’s circular that ‘those with income in TL should borrow in TL’, and despite having no income in dollars, the authority keeps borrowing in dollars.”

Countering criticism that Kıb-Tek’s coffers were empty because the board he headed had not increased the price of power, Mr Erçen said: “We didn’t leave any money in the coffers but we didn’t leave behind any debts. We paid in cash for all our investments and handed the authority over to the new management. And look what the new management are doing.

“For whatever reason, price hikes and borrowing are being carried out simultaneously and this continues each month as if everything is on autopilot.”

Pointing to monthly fuel purchases being met by borrowing, Mr Erçen questioned: “What happened to the revenue brought in from the 50 per cent hike last month?”

He also criticised the electricity workers’ union, El-Sen, for “failing to react” against Kıb-Tek’s debt burden, and warned that any new investment in power generation plants would “exceed enormously” the authority’s means.