Plan to Reduce Israel Staffs Abroad Submitted to Cabinet

A plan for the basic reorganization of Israel Government departments abroad dealing with economic and financial matters, cutting the diplomatic staff by ten percent and slashing between five and 25 percent of the salaries of Israel’s diplomats, has been prepared at the behest of the Cabinet by Zeev Sharef, Secretary of the Government. The report was turned over to the Cabinet a month ago, but has just been released to the public.

According to the report, the diplomatic service cost Israel $3,340,000 in the last fiscal year, plus $271,000 for military attaches and $1,012,000 for the salaries and administrative expenses of the representatives of other Ministries, such as the purchasing mission and treasury representatives.

Mr. Sharef recommends the saving of considerable manpower to be effected by unifying the diplomatic services in such moves as combining the positions of First Secretary and Counsellor at the embassies and legations. Another portion of the report suggests that the functions of “economic representations” abroad should be turned over to the regular diplomatic and consular missions.

RECOMMENDS CURBING OF ISRAEL ECONOMIC MISSION IN FOREIGN LANDS

Pointing out that there are currently 15 economic missions functioning abroad, the Government Secretary proposes that no Ministry shall be permitted to establish its own missions abroad without the Cabinet’s specific approval. He further recommends that pending the effectuation of the reorganization, some of the authority of the various Ministry representatives abroad should be turned over to the consulates, including responsibility for issuing import licenses, allocating foreign currency to Israeli citizens abroad, extending military exemptions, etc.

It is also proposed that the Foreign Ministry draft a special foreign service bill giving legal form to the arrangements and regulations governing the service. Mr. Sharef severely criticized the present state of affairs in various missions where the independent missions and the embassies or legations enter into a “struggle for authority” resulting in Inconvenience and confusion.

In a comparison of salaries paid diplomats by Israel and by other nations, the report establishes that the salaries of Israeli ambassadors are only one-seventh that of salaries paid their British counterparts and only half that paid to Swiss Ambassadors. It found that while the civil servant in Israel worked 283 days a year, the Israeli diplomatic staff abroad averaged 218 days annually. Mr. Sharef proposed that every Israeli office abroad work the same number of days. The report also stated that in the 1951-52 year, 1,466 civil servants travelled abroad on government business.