Treasury, Defense Ministry rift widens over budget

Moshe Kahlon
Moshe Kahlon

Ministry of Finance source: The Ministry of Defense is fooling us again.

Conflict still exists over the defense budget: Ministry of Finance Moshe Kahlon is determined to fulfill his undertakings to Minister of Defense Moshe Ya'alon and to sign an agreement on the defense budget, even though a penetrating probe by his director general, Shai Babad, revealed many faults in the agreement. Babad declared that the agreement would be signed today, as agreed.

Speaking today at the Shderot Conference for Society at the Sapir Academic College, Babad said, "I cannot tell you that an agreement will be signed today between the Ministries of Finance and Defense with all the streamlining measures." As of web posting, it was still not clear whether Ministry of Finance budget director Amir Levy and Noah Hacker, his deputy, who handled the negotiations, would also sign the agreement. During the day, it was agreed that a note would be attached to the agreement saying that the figures on which the agreement was based would be checked by the Accountant General. Sources involved in the agreement predicted that this note would create legal difficulties in implementing the agreement.

Yesterday, Ministry of Finance wages department director Kobi Amsalem and Accountant General Michal Abadi-Boiangiu presented their objections to the agreement for the purpose of delaying its signing and making changes in it. Both Amsalem and Abadi-Boiangiu gave Babad a document listing their main objections to the agreement's contents and omissions, in addition to barbed comments made orally about measures taken behind the back of the department heads by their colleagues in the Ministry of Finance management.

As part of the clarification conducted yesterday by Babad, it was learned that the process of formulating the agreement with the Ministry of Finance was defective. During the discussion, it was alleged that the budget department had prevented the relevant department from consulting each other, and had omitted important items from the agreement. It was also argued that the department heads had not seen the full picture in their dealings with the defense establishment. In the course of the discussion, Accountant General Department personnel considered contacting the Attorney General, saying that the budget director had exceeded his authority. Ministry of Finance legal advisor Yoel Briss was also not invited to the meeting.

In view of these events, criticism by the Ministry of Finance of the agreement to be signed has grown, and is no longer confined to Amsalem and Abadi-Boiangiu. Senior ministry officials admitted today in closed talks that the agreement is not the best one that could have been drawn up. They said that together with the few important achievements in it, such as transparency, limiting IDF personnel, and implementation of the Goren Committee recommendations for rehabilitation of soldiers and others serving in the security forces wounded during their service, for example, there were serious drawbacks. They said, "Things were done deliberately. People in the department dealt with matters they didn't understand, and the results stick out like a sore thumb. This is a bad agreement that includes no change in the concept for using personnel in the defense establishment and that's the most questionable thing about it."

As to the chances that the agreement will be carried out, one of the Ministry of Finance sources said, "It's all make believe. The agreement was signed without any professional base and without calculations. The department's people have no answers for anything, including the professional failures. At best, this is an agreement done by an amateur." The source added, "Were this agreement the result of an examination given to a student, his grade would have been 30. There is a lack of professionalism in finding solutions for things. The budget department kids think that they are reinventing the wheel. Their lack of experience is doing damage to the public. The Ministry of Defense people and the IDF made monkeys out the budget department kids. There are mistakes there that need correcting, and without any correction, this is a bad agreement. The Ministry of Defense has fooled the budget department again."

Despite the criticism, the Ministry of Finance plans to sign the agreement as written. Beyond the severe damage to its image, there is real anxiety in the Ministry of Finance about any attempt to introduce changes into the agreement, because the Ministry of Defense is liable to use it as an excuse to spending the budget supplement promised to it without fulfilling any of the commitments it undertook in the framework of the understandings. This anxiety is based on past behavior by the defense establishment with respect to implementation of the Brodet Committee conclusions. The Ministry of Defense will argue that the Ministry of Finance's stubbornness is preventing the agreement from being signed, while at the same time, the NIS 3 billion budget supplement promised to the Ministry of Defense will be paid.

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 24, 2015

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2015

Moshe Kahlon
Moshe Kahlon
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