MK Akonis: We're can't live in clerkistan

Treasury head Yarom Ariav: If there were no clerks, we'd have to invent them.

Knesset Economics Affairs Committee chairman MK Ophir Akonis (Likud) today lambasted the government water policies, firing his barbs at Ministry of Finance officials. "What happened to the water is a tragedy and a 20-year government failure. The last real winters were in 1990-92, and since then the government has been in dreamland." He made the comments today at the 6th Sderot Conference for Social Affairs organized by the Sapir College.

Akonis continued, "All the governments have failed, and now the public is being blamed for the failure. This is not acceptable. It's not possible to see Israeli society in Excel tables of the clerks at the Ministry of Finance at Kaplan Street 3 in Jerusalem. These clerks have far more power than they should have, and we can't live in the State of Clerkistan."

Akonis went on to say that Ministry of Finance officials sought to include in the 2009 Economic Arrangements Law an item to collect tolls on the southern section of the Road 6 toll road (the Cross-Israel Highway). Akonis claimed that he blocked this attempt, in order to avoid harming residents of the Negev.

The crowd cheered Akonis's speech. However, Ministry of Finance director general Yarom Ariav fired back with his own ridicule. "I see that the new MK has quickly learned the business, because you know how to get hands clapping by turning the Ministry of Finance into a punching bag. Play your game. But I want to tell you that if there weren't Ministry of Finance clerks, it would be necessary to invent them, because someone has to balance the short-term perspectives of the MKs. There is one place that takes an overarching perspective, which does not relate to this or that sector. We, at the Ministry of Finance, try to look after the good of everyone."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 17, 2009

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2009

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