Last update - 00:00 05/11/2006
Comptroller's Office official goes on leave over graft allegations
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Police Major General (ret.) Yaakov Borovsky is to temporarily step down from the post he held for two months as head of corruption investigations in the State Comptroller's Office.
Haaretz has learned that Borovsky's decision stemmed from the criminal probe opened against him following a complaint by a former Likud activist, Salomon Karubi, of a deal Borovsky allegedly offered in 2004 to close files in which former MK Omri Sharon was allegedly involved in return for his appointment as police commissioner.
Speaking on Army Radio on Sunday, Borovsky confirmed the report saying he would go on leave if a police investigation against him would be launched. He denied, however, this step would have any permanent reprecussions on his work at the State Comptroller's Office.
Borovsky reportedly informed State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss of his decision Thursday. He had received hints from senior officials in the State Comptroller's Office, including Lindenstrauss, that even if there was not a shred of truth in the allegations against him, his temporary departure from the post would be for the good of the State Comptroller's Office.
This is because it would prevent powerful political forces who wanted to avoid the comptroller's scrutiny from weakening the institution by attacking Borovsky.
In private conversation, Borovsky said that it is inconceivable that the opening of an investigation against an individual by means of false claims would lead to the demand that the individual step down from his job. If such complaints were made against the president of the supreme court, the attorney general, the state prosecutor or the head of the investigations department of the police, Borovsky told associates, no one would expect them to step down just because the complaint was submitted. If they did, it would be an invitation to blackmail.
Borovsky also said privately that he does not believe it proper that he deal with cases of government corruption at the most senior political level in the State Comptroller's Office, while a cloud hangs over his head, even though it is based on false accusations.
Borovsky told his associates the initiative to step down had come entirely from him. "I am the last person to stick to my chair," he said. He also said the investigation against him had come about because of his own initiative -- he had been the one to suggest that Karubi complain to the police, and eventually submitted a counter complaint against Karubi.
State Prosecutor Eran Shendar decided on the probe on Thursday, after Karubi leveled the accusation that during the race for police commissioner, Borovsky had allegedly suggested a deal whereby if Omri Sharon, the son of then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, would see to it that Borovsky became commissioner, he would in turn close cases to which Omri Sharon was allegedly connected.
Sources close to Borovsky said the claims against him are false, and that even Karubi himself had not claimed that Borovsky had offered the deal. They said it was illogical for Borovsky to offer such a bribe through a Likud activist whom he did not know.
Moreover, the police commissioner is not authorized to close cases against elected politicians and certainly would not be able to act on them without other senior police officials and the state prosecutor finding out about it.
Borovsky's decision is also believed to have been influenced by fall-out from a public flap a few months ago in the Zeiler committee regarding alleged political involvement in the selection of Moshe Karadi over Borovsky as police commissioner. Karadi told the committee that he had received a letter from Brigadier General (ret.) Meir Gilboa, in which he quoted Borovsky as saying that in exchange for Brigadier General Yoram Levy's assistance to underworld figures the Parinyan brothers, and the brothers' garnering votes in the Likud Central Committee for Hanegbi and Omri Sharon, Sharon and Hanegbi asked Karadi to promote Levy. Borovsky and Hanegbi denied the allegations, and even threatened a slander suit. Borovsky's involvement in the incident in the committee was reportedly not well received in the State Comptroller's Office.