Comptroller calls for halt to "Jobs Bill"

Joseph Shapira
Joseph Shapira

The amendment to the Government Companies law makes it easier for ex-politicians to become directors in government companies.

State Comptroller Joseph Shapira has recommended that Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon and Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked halt the progress of a bill creating a direct track for the appointment of politicians as directors in government-owned companies, referred to as the "Jobs Bill." Coalition chairman MK David Bitan (Likud) is promoting the bill.

In his letter to the two ministers, the State Comptroller states that his office has conducted an audit on the subject of appointing directors in government companies in recent months. The audit is about to be completed, and the special report will be published soon.

Shapira believes that in view of the fact that a dramatic and significant change of the current arrangements is involved, the need to safeguard the public interest and for probity requires waiting for the completion and publication the report, so that the findings and conclusions from it can be taken into account.

The Knesset plenum yesterday approved the amendment to the Government Companies Law, referred to as the "Jobs bill," on its preliminary reading. The vote was 41-25.

The amendment repeals Section 18C of the Government Companies Law, which states that a candidate for becoming a director in a government company who has a personal, business, or political association with a government minister will be required to present "special qualifications" of greater weight than the association with the minister. The proposal also states that former ministers with at least three years of experience and heads of local authorities with more than 50,000 residents can be appointed directors in government companies without presenting extra qualifications, thereby bypassing the Government Companies Authority's pool of candidates who fulfill a list of criteria and requirements.

Bitan's original proposal also sought to allow the appointment of former members of Knesset as directors without extra qualifications. Following opposition from Kahlon, however, a compromise was reached, which Kahlon supported.

"Damage to proper administration"

"It doesn't matter what you say, or what sugar coating you put on this bill; it's a jobs bill that damages proper administration and the foundations of proper management," MK Yael German (Yesh Atid) said yesterday. "This bill will allow the appointment of directors with personal, business, and political associations with ministers to government companies that are tasked with managing hundreds of millions, and even billions, of shekels. This is corruption. After we managed to create a pool of candidates for directors and brought government companies from a NIS 600 million loss to a NIS 2 billion profit, you're now turning these companies into branches of corruption," German averred.

In response, Bitan said, "I like German, but every other word she says is corruption. Corruption was when Yair Lapid was minister of finance and made sure that only Yesh Atid members could be selected, because they have no central committee members in that party, and there's nothing there. This is real corruption, and that's the big trick you pulled."

Bitan further argued that there was no reason that ministers with experience and mayors of large cities should have to present better qualifications than other were required to present. "Does it sound reasonable to you that Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai, known to be a Labor Party member, can't be a director in a public company? All this criticism is demagoguery aimed at perpetuating the rule by officeholders," Bitan added.

Published by Globes [online], Israel Business News - www.globes-online.com - on June 29, 2017

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2017

Joseph Shapira
Joseph Shapira
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