Slippery Slope

The finance and justice ministries are pushing for an amendment that could give the new government the ability to propose the budgets for the years 2013-2014 in one bill, with separate columns for each of the two years. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

The Ministry of Finance’s Accountant General used a private company – “Limon – Economic Investigations Limited” – to conceal payments to security investigators.

(Hebrew – Haaretz)

Large discrepancies were found in the salaries of several senior Tel-Aviv-yafo municipality officials during an audit conducted by the Treasury’s civil-service wages director.  The discrepancies range from 3,000 to 14,000 NIS per employee and were, it seems, paid out of the city taxes (arnona) paid by the city’s residents.  The municipality and Histadrut Labour Union refuse to hand over their own data for inspection.

(Hebrew – The Marker)

The High Court of Justice  took the state to task for inadequate government funding of the country’s health maintenance organizations. “The right of the citizens of the State of Israel to health [care], as shaped and enshrined in the state health insurance law, is slowly being emptied of content in light of the systematic erosion of the health maintenance organizations’ budgets,” Justice Salim Joubran stated, ruling on a petition filed by the Clalit and Maccabi HMOs. The HMOs were challenging the mix of components the government has been using to calculate the cost of medical care. They said it did not accurately reflect the cost of hospitalization and, in the process, was eating away at their budgets.

The Ministry of Finance transferred National Insurance pensions to thousands of Holocaust survivors which are lower than those stipulated by law, thus denying them of tens to hundreds of thousands of Shekels each.

(Hebrew - nrg)

According to Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, two years ago the Ministry of Defense requested NIS 2.8 billion to build a 200km-long fence on the Israel-Egypt border excluding Gaza, while the Israeli Roads Company requested NIS 1 billion for the same work.

(Hebrew)

Micha Lindenstrauss, Israel’s State Comptroller, has said that Ministry of Finance officials continue to impede his investigations and do not transfer data to his office required for investigative purposes.

(Hebrew)

Government departments have discontinued all audits of 1,200 Yeshivas and Kollels (Torah schools for married men), financed by the State. The inspection, carried out by inspectors and auditors of the Ministry of Finance, was discontinued in July, by an order of the Accountant General.

(Hebrew)

The Ministry of Finance has released a proposal to expedite the planned development of Israel’s seaports while easing environmental protection requirements, which would have a significant financial impact on the projects.  The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel have attacked the plan and called it a major departure from proper planning procedures, and that the Finance Ministry’s plan violates current planning legislation.

Israel has for the past two weeks been delaying the transfer of US$100 million of tax revenue it has collected for the Palestinian Authority, against the advice of security officials.