Knesset elects PM’s nominee Matanyahu Englman as next state comptroller
67-45 vote in favor of Netanyahu’s pick viewed as loss for parties in what would have been the opposition
Jacob Magid is The Times of Israel's US bureau chief
In a victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Knesset voted on Monday to appoint Matanyahu Englman as the next state comptroller.
The 67-45 secret ballot vote indicated that all of the parties that had recommended that Netanyahu form the next government after the April elections supported his candidate, along with two other lawmakers.
The 53-year-old Englman is a graduate of the national religious camp’s flagship Har Etzion yeshiva in the West Bank’s Etzion Bloc. In a divergence from the ombudsmen of the past three decades, including incumbent Yosef Shapira, Englman is not a judge. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics and accounting and a MA in business administration. In 2014-2018 he served as director general of the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa. Last year, Education Minister Naftali Bennett appointed him director general of Israel’s Council for Higher Education.
He will replace Shapira next month.
“This is a great honor for me, and I will enter this position with humility and a sense of national duty,” Englman said in a statement following his election.
A Netanyahu spokesman called the appointment a “huge victory” for the premier.
“The prime minister personally took to the phones to press MKs to support Engllman, together with Minister Elkin and the other faction heads. Many lawmakers noted that they were very impressed by Englman’s experience and his intention to make changes to the system so that it will carry out audits and repairs rather than attempts to replace government officials,” the spokesman said.
The voting results had analysts speculating that several Arab Israeli MKs didn’t vote for the opposition’s nominee, Giora Romm, the country’s former military attaché in the United States and former deputy commander of the Israeli Air Force.
Hadash-Ta’al leader Ayman Odeh rejected the accusation, tweeting after the vote, “the ballot was secret but it is no secret who has been afraid of working with the representatives of Arab Israeli citizens and who disseminates false rumors about them. Let me be clear — we voted with the opposition.”
Netanyahu had reportedly fretted in recent days over the possibility that parties he sought for his coalition, who nominated Englman last month, would walk back on their agreements to support him after the Knesset disbanded last week and elections were set for September 17.
The premier was said to have been most concerned about Yisrael Beytenu, which held out on joining his coalition and has since given no indication that it would join a Netanyahu government after snap elections in the fall. However, the secular, right-wing party issued a statement earlier Monday saying it would keep its word on the matter. Liberman offered one reporter the chance to film him casting his vote, and MK Yulia Malinovsky tweeted a picture of herself holding a Englman ballot slip.
Candidates needed the votes of at least 61 MKs in order to be appointed.
It is the state comptroller’s job to review the policies and actions of the government and its agencies. According to the Knesset website he is tasked with “inspecting the legality, integrity, managerial norms, efficiency and economy of the audited bodies, as well as any other matter which he or she deems necessary.”
The comptroller issues annual reports as well as special reports on issues that he believes require attention.
