Last update - 00:00 29/09/2004
IBA head Barel given deadline to respond to complaints
By Anat Balint
Ehud Olmert, the minister in charge of the Israel Broadcasting Authority, yesterday informed IBA Director-General Yosef Barel that he is "leaning toward" ousting him from his post.
If he does, it would be the first time a sitting IBA director-general has ever been dismissed.
In a letter to Barel, a copy of which was obtained by Haaretz, Olmert detailed a series of complaints against his management and demanded that Barel either respond in writing by October 12 or schedule a formal hearing with the minister by October 19. Should Olmert deem Barel's response unpersuasive, he will probably first convene the IBA board for consultations and only then submit a motion for Barel's ouster to the cabinet, which must approve it.
The letter detailed three main areas in which Olmert considered Barel's management problematic: inappropriate appointments, financial irregularities, and an operation to enhance collection of television license fees by stopping citizens at illegal roadblocks and threatening them with sanctions that the IBA had no authority to impose, such as impounding their cars, if they did not pay immediately - regardless of whether they actually owed the money. The roadblock scheme was first revealed in Haaretz.
On the first issue, Olmert noted that Barel's cronies had enjoyed meteoric rises through the IBA ranks over the last two years. For instance, his personal assistant, Ilana Zangelbaf-Rabinovich, was recently named director of Channel 33, and her husband, Zelig Rabinovich, was at one point made director of resources at Channel 1. Olmert also cited the improper hiring of two journalists and Barel's attempt, eventually thwarted by Olmert, to lower the qualifications for filling various senior positions.
"You have often acted contrary to legal opinions ... and in the end, the courts have rejected your position in many cases," he wrote. "Such behavior attests ... to improper management and undermining of the rule of law."
On the financial front, Olmert cited Barel's persistent efforts to thwart efforts to rehabilitate the financially troubled IBA, particularly his interference in the work of an auditor appointed by the Finance Ministry and his submission of falsified financial data to Olmert himself.
The roadblock scheme, which succeeded in collecting some NIS 20 million before it was halted, raised the IBA's mismanagement to new heights, Olmert wrote. The police have not yet opened a criminal investigation into the affair, but "on the face of things, the IBA's collection division under your management acted illegally ... There is no need to waste words on the grave import of these acts."
Olmert has wanted to fire Barel for months, but had hitherto refrained from taking action because he did not have Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's support. Without Sharon's backing, he had no chance of getting cabinet approval for the ouster. Sharon changed his mind this week, after the two finally agreed on a replacement for Barel.