State Comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat says she has found evidence of possible criminal offenses by government officials over the past two years.
In her annual comptroller’s report, submitted to the Knesset on Monday, Ben-Porat said she has asked Attorney General Yosef Harish to investigate “between 8 and 10 cases of suspected criminality.”
The 1,084-page document, made public at a news conference Tuesday, was said to be the most critical and scathing report to date on the operations, failures, shortcomings and errors of the government since the comptroller’s office was established 39 years ago.
The report charged that 60 percent of the failings cited in past comptroller’s reports had gone unaddressed and uncorrected.
Ben-Porat, a retired Supreme Court justice, said her investigation uncovered many instances of negligence, politicization of the economy, election fraud and disregard of the public interest.
She was especially hard on the politicization of the civil service, citing many instances of politicians favoring members of their own parties, regardless of qualifications.
She was equally tough on Labor and Likud, naming top ministers of both coalition partners, whom she accused of blatant favoritism.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
