Responding to a recent parliamentary question filed by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Manisa deputy Erkan Akçay on statistics concerning the government's answers to parliamentary questions, Sağlam pointed out that 34 percent of all parliamentary questions have not been answered on time. Recalling that written parliamentary questions must be answered within 15 days of submission to the Parliamentary Speaker's Office, Sağlam listed the ministers who have most frequently failed to respond in time. He named National Education Minister Ömer Dinçer with 61 percent of questions answered late, Interior Minister İdris Naim Sahin with 53 percent, Family and Social Policy Minister Fatma Şahin with 43 percent and Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin with 43 percent.
Sağlam added that from the start of the 24th term of Parliament on June 12, 2011, until April 19, 2012, deputies submitted 6,153 parliamentary questions to the Parliamentary Speaker's Office. He noted while the government has answered 3,806 (62 percent) of these, 974 (16 percent) questions remained unanswered and 1,370 (22 percent) are in progress.
According to data provided by the Parliament Speaker's Office, 58 percent of the questions asked to Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yıldırım during the 24th term of Parliament remain unanswered. He was followed by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (38 percent unanswered), Health Minister Recep Akdağ (37 percent) and Family and Social Policy Minister Fatma Şahin (36 percent).
Sağlam noted that in the 23rd term, 16,327 questions were answered out of a total 19,026 asked by the deputies.
