Comptroller’s scathing report shows failure, incompetence throughout government

State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss issued a scathing annual State Comptroller’s Report to the Knesset Tuesday afternoon. The highly anticipated report, which is more than 1,700 pages in length, seemed to spare no one in its critique of the state’s handling of issues ranging from senior citizens, healthcare, and education to defense, airline security and bureaucracy.

The report blasted the Defense Ministry and criticized the civil administration and the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry for the mistreatment of Palestinian workers in West Bank. It advocated for less bureaucracy and cited the state’s failure to collects tens of millions of shekels of debt.

Lindenstrauss said the IDF’s lack of oversight on various weapons acquisitions caused a two-year delay in the purchased items going operational, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

He criticized the IDF for failing to meet its quota for ultra-Orthodox enlistment. The report pointed out that between 2005 and 2010 there was a 26 percent increase in the number of ultra-Orthodox young men who claimed exemption from IDF service for religious reasons. The report, however, does cite a military program that successfully recruited 2,000 Haredi soldiers over the past few years, according to Israel National News.

Lindenstrauss contended that the high cost of IDF’s drone unit needs to be reevaluated vis-à-vis the greater defense budget.

One of the most damning critiques in the report says that the country lacks adequate defenses for civilian planes from missile attacks. Lindenstrauss stated that despite the government’s decision to apply anti-missile defense systems to planes in 2003, various ministers have mishandled the program. Not a single plane has yet been fitted with the necessary defenses.

He also blasted the Education Ministry for failing to enforce new guidelines for children’s safety — citing some 18,000 accidents that took place in schools last year. It contended that such misconduct, together with hundreds of millions of shekels that have gone missing at the ministry, are indicative of a lack of regulation.

The report also criticized desalination companies, headed by business tycoons Idan Ofer and Yitzhak Tshuva, for failing to move ahead on three of six planned water purification facilities.

The report was Lindenstrauss’s last annual State Comptroller’s Report to the Knesset. He is scheduled to retire in July after the completion of a seven-year term.

Lindenstrauss’s tenure in office has been frequently controversial, most recently over his expected decision to call for the resignation of the ministers of interior and finance following the Carmel fire, and his agreement to investigate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged financial misconduct following the airing of an investigative report on Channel 10’s “HaMakor.”

Apart from the report on the Carmel forest fire, which is scheduled to be delivered within two weeks, Lindenstrauss is expected to make waves with several other reports before his July retirement.

The state comptroller has been working on a report about the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident of May 2010, in which naval commandos intercepted a fleet of six ships carrying activists from Turkey who were trying to break the Israeli naval blockade on Gaza. Nine Turkish citizens died and several IDF soldiers were injured as a result of violent clashes on one of the ships. A portion of the report will criticize the government for not using vital information provided by the National Security Council to make its decisions in this episode, according to Maariv.

One report will deal with the recent accident that took place during rehearsals for the Independence Day ceremony at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem in which IDF officer Hila Betzaleli was killed.

Another one, which will be submitted within a few days according to an Israel Radio report, deals with the “Harpaz affair,” in which senior military officers may have had a hand in forging a document aimed at nixing the appointment of Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant to the position of chief of General Staff.

As signs indicate that elections are nearing, any one of the reports could cause major damage to the electoral ambitions of current or aspiring politicians.

Israel’s state comptroller serves a seven-year term, with the primary functions being examining the legality, regularity, efficiency, economy, and ethical conduct of public institutions. Throughout his years in office Lindenstrauss has made a name for himself by not shying away from controversy and by submitting hard-hitting reports that place personal responsibility for mishaps and wrongdoings on government officials and elected representatives. Critics, however, have occasionally derided him for being too fond of the media spotlight.

Lindenstrauss’s replacement has yet to be named. The two likely candidates to fill his post are Jerusalem District Court Judge Joseph Shapira and Supreme Court Justice Eliezer Rivlin. The Knesset is set to vote on it on May 15.