State comptroller to publish report on PM residence spending
Yosef Shapira set to release findings Tuesday into allegations of misappropriation of state funds by Netanyahu, wife
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Israel’s State Comptroller Yosef Shapira was set to publish a report Tuesday following a probe into allegations of excessive spending and misappropriation of state funds by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, at the official Prime Minister’s Residence on Jerusalem’s Smolenskin Street.
The findings will come a day after the prime minister released a new campaign video in which his wife is seen giving a virtual tour of their home, admittedly in a state of serious disrepair.
The tour, featuring celebrity designer Moshe Galamin, was understood by many as an effort to dull any potential fallout from the comptroller’s findings.
But Shapira’s report will not deal with the state of the official residence, but rather with such expenses as flights, catering and alcoholic beverages, and flower arrangements.
The allegations discussed in the report suggest Netanyahu’s wife, Sara, pocketed thousands of shekels in returns on bottles recycled by the Prime Minister’s Residence.
The charges surfaced in recent weeks in a lawsuit by a former employee working at the residence, and have been taken up by the election campaigns of parties hoping to oust the prime minister.
Since drinks consumed in the PM’s residence are purchased by the state, any funds accruing from them belong, by law, to the state treasury.
The Netanyahus said the funds were collected by them inadvertently, and noted that some NIS 4,000 ($1,017) was returned to state coffers in 2013 by Sara Netanyahu under the supervision of the financial regulator at the Prime Minister’s Office.
Earlier this month, Tzipi Livni, head of the Hatnua party and co-leader of the Labor-led Zionist Union Knesset slate, charged that the Prime Minister’s Office under Netanyahu consumed a minimum wage’s worth of alcohol — some NIS 4,300 — each month.
The PMO retorted that an inquiry by the PMO’s financial regulator’s office showed the Prime Minister’s Residence purchased, on average, a single bottle of wine per day during 2013 and 2014.
Statements from the prime minister recently accused left-wing parties of engaging in “personal” attacks against his family, instead of substantive debate.
The Times of Israel Community.