State Comptroller to hold inquiry into flash flood disaster
Interdivisional team from State Comptroller Yosef Shapira's office prepares to begin top-down inquiry into disaster that claimed lives of 10 teens last week; defense, education ministry's actions to be reviewed.
The review will be carried out by a joint staff comprising the Defense Establishment Inquiry Division, which is usually tasked with overseeing the Defense Ministry, the Education and Welfare Inquiry Division, which is tasked with the education system, and the Division for Review of Government Ministries and Institutions, charged with supervising the Public Security Ministry and all agencies subordinate to the ministry.
An official in the State Comptroller's Office added that employees from any of the comptroller's other divisions will be brought into the fray as and when necessary.
The investigation into the disaster has been accompanied by a slew of buck-passing attempts between the education and defense ministries regarding responsibility for similar trips.
The Education Ministry thus announced Saturday it will form a joint committee with the Defense Ministry and the Joint Council of Pre-Military Academies with the aim of regulating the academies' outdoor activities.
Heading the committee will be Education Ministry Director-General Shmuel Abuav, and it will also be staffed by Defense Ministry and council representatives.
"This difficult incident shows that a thorough, fundamental review of the academies' outdoor activities is required for their continued operation," an Education Ministry statement said.
Earlier Sunday, police investigators from the Tel Aviv District Police's anti-fraud unit confiscated computers and documents from the Bnei Zion pre-military academy—which led the deadly trip—as part of their investigation into the deaths at the Zafit Stream Thursday.
The academy's principal Yuval Kahan, who is suspected of negligent homicide, was arrested on Friday, along with one of the guides on the trip, in a move that was criticized by some, who questioned whether it was necessary.
"This question also bothered me, and I turned to the police and asked them," Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Ynet on Sunday.
"It was explained to me that there is a prosecutor who accompanies the investigation, and that there were apparently contradictions in the different versions and concern of obstruction of the investigation, which created the need for the arrest," he explained.
Erdan also stressed that the decision to extend the remand of suspects and leave them in police custody is taken by a judge, not the police.
