State Comptroller Yosef Shapira
Photo: Yitzhak Harari/Knesset
Ministerial c'tee to vote on bill to limit state comptroller's authority
Proposal would bar the state comptroller from investigating matters in real time or following up on his reports; 'Limiting the comptroller's authorities doesn't serve the public, only government members who want to act without supervision,' says Zionist Union leader Gabbay.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation will vote Sunday on a bill proposal to significantly limit the state comptroller's authorities.
The legislation, proposed by Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich, would bar the state comptroller from intervening in the decision-making process of a state body under his investigation or instructing that body to do or refrain from certain actions.
According to the proposal, the comptroller would no longer have the authority to instruct these state bodies to fix the failings detailed in his reports or issue follow up reports to ensure the failings had indeed been rectified.
State Comptroller Yosef Shapira and Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich (Photos: Gil Yohanan, Alex Kolomoisky)
Instead, Smotrich proposes the prime minister would monitor the correction of failings found in government ministries, while the interior minister would monitor local authorities.
In addition, under the proposed legislation the comptroller would only be able to examine the work of the different state bodies rather than their judgment and decision-making.
The comptroller would also lose the authority to launch an investigation "into any other matter he deems necessary."
Smotrich explained that the state comptroller's "added value" over other gatekeepers is the fact it is an external body, independent from the executive branch and not involved in its decision-making.
Such intervention, Smotrich claims, "could undermine the ability to conduct the investigation from the unique external perspective, and even impose additional bureaucratic burden on the investigated bodies, which will require considerable investment of resources on their part."
'Trying to silence the state comptroller'
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's Kulanu Party has already announced its objection to the legislation, while opposition parties strongly criticized it."The government of noblemen continues looking after only its own interests. This time, the state comptroller is the target," said Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay.
"The corrupt political culture of this government allows it to further undermine the gatekeepers. Limiting the comptroller's authorities doesn't serve the public, only government members who want to act without supervision," Gabbay added, vowing that "a government led by us would cancel all of the laws that hinder the war on corruption."
Zionist Union leader Avi Gabbay (Photo: Yoav Dudkevitch)
Shelly Yachimovich (Zionist Union), who chairs the Knesset's State Control Committee, argued that "preventing the comptroller from investigating in real time is akin to closing the State Comptroller's Office and dismissing the comptroller. All criticism is done in real time, be it on civilian issues or security matters, and if we wait until disaster strikes and corruption takes root, we would become a corrupt third world country, with no legal or moral boundaries."
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said the bill proposal seeks to "silence the state comptroller. They won't let him examine what they're doing, and mostly what they're not doing. Instead of fixing failings, they prefer citizens to just not know they exist."
Criticism also came from former state comptroller Eliezer Goldberg. "There is no reason to change the State Comptroller Law. This looks like a desire to neutralize and limit the State Comptroller's Office," the retired judge told Yedioth Ahronoth.
Former state comptroller Eliezer Goldberg
Goldberg said that while most comptroller reports investigate things that had already happened, "if the comptroller sees an accident is about to happen, should he sit idly by and wait for it to happen and only then investigate what caused it?"
The retired judge further said the comptroller "only alerts, he doesn't tell the executive branch how to act or how to deal with the problem."
Moreover, "the comptroller expresses his position on the decision-making process, not the decision itself, which the domain of the executive branch," he said.
