In 2020, Berlin’s then health senator, Dilek Kalayci, is said to have commissioned an agency that previously worked for her privately. The public prosecutor’s office in the capital is now investigating the SPD politician on suspicion of corruption.
According to a media report, the public prosecutor’s office in Berlin is investigating the capital’s former health senator, Dilek Kalayci, on suspicion of taking advantage. As the “Tagesspiegel” reported, the public prosecutor suspects the SPD politician of having contributed during her tenure as a senator to the Senate Department for Health commissioning a communications agency that previously worked for her privately. The procedure was initiated in mid-November 2021, when Kalayci was still in office and before the new Senate was constituted at the end of December. In April, the homes of Kalayci and other suspects, as well as some places of work, were searched, the report said.
The owner of the agency is being investigated for allegedly granting advantages. According to the “Tagesspiegel”, the starting point of these investigations was an allegation of fraud against the agency owner. Prosecutors found evidence that Kalayci used the agency’s services privately in 2019, but may not have been billed in full, the report said. In 2020, the same agency was commissioned by the health administration – which was then managed by Kalayci – with an advertising campaign.
The subject of the investigation is whether there is an illegitimate connection between the private and official use of the agency, a spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office said in the “Tagesspiegel”. According to the report, a Social Democrat well acquainted with Kalayci works as the agency’s senior project manager. Accordingly, the man is active in the SPD district association Tempelhof-Schoeneberg in the capital – in which Kalayci was chairman until 2018. The public prosecutor’s office is leading Kalayci’s comrades as witnesses, the “Tagesspiegel” reported.
According to the report, investigations are currently underway against an employee of the Senate Labor Office and a functionary of a Berlin chamber. Accordingly, they are also suspected of taking advantage in connection with the agency, but independently of the allegations about ex-Senator Kalayci.
