The World Zionist Organization Executive is about to invest $60,000 in a computer that will monitor all telephone calls from WZO and Jewish Agency headquarters in an attempt to cut down soaring telephone bills. The Executive believes the computer will more than pay for itself within one year.
According to Yediot Achronot the WZO and Jewish Agency spend almost $1 million a year on telephone calls. A Jewish Agency spokesman said that figure was inaccurate but could not say what the correct amount is. Apparently the computer is intended to find out. It will record the extension from which the call is made, the length of the conversation and the number called.
The WZO Executive decided on a number of other money-saving measures yesterday in response to the organization’s difficult financial situation. United Jewish Appeal and United Israel Appeal income for the months April-June reportedly fell by $19 million compared to the same period last year. The Executive hopes to save some 20 percent in WZO expenditures by cutting down on telephone calls, its car pool and manpower. In principle, it will hire no new employes unless approved by a special committee headed by director general Shmuel Lahis.
Leon Dulzin, chairman of the WZO and Jewish Agency Executives, has also asked the savings committee, headed by Jewish Agency Treasurer Akiva Levinsky, to check the number of WZO emissaries overseas and reduce it by half. The Jewish Agency now maintains some 500 emissaries abroad at an annual expense of about $17.5 million. This constitutes some 50 percent of the Agency’s operating budget. Each emissary is estimated to cost $35,000 a year.
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