Last update - 00:00 21/01/2007
Zelekha presents his plan for fighting public sector corruption
By Arnon Ben-Yair
Law enforcement agencies need "significant reinforcements of personnel and budgets, by 100 to 200 percent," Accountant General Yaron Zelekha said on Friday.
Speaking at a conference sponsored by the Eretz Israel Museum, Zelekha presented his theory of how to fight public corruption, adding that soon he would publish a complete plan on the matter.
The fight against corruption, he said, has three legs: the watchdogs, including internal auditors, legal advisors and comptrollers in government agencies and offices; the managers; and the politicians.
But in most government ministries, he continued, internal auditors rank lower than those officials that they examine, and therefore, the auditor is dependent on those he audits.
Only in two cases are the auditors on the level of directors general.
Also, Zelekha said, internal auditors' salaries include a large component that is not fixed, but rather depends on variables such as overtime - which require monthly approval from those that they are supposed to audit."
"This creates dependency. Moreover, the accountant general continued, auditors have no separate budget, so every investigation they make requires the approval of those being investigated," said Zelekha.
As to legal advisers, Zelekha said the problem is that the length of their term of office is not set in advance.
"It is natural that over the years, friendships form in the workplace. [Thus] legal advisers, like internal auditors, need to be changed every four to six years. There is no such thing as a watchdog who does not change," Zelekha explained.
In contrast, the accountant general's representatives in other ministries comprise a "system that includes rotation and a separate, independent budget, and as of 2005, it has been adapted to general accounting principles," Zelekha said.
He also urged that a cooling-off period be instituted for these watchdogs, so that they would not be able to accept promotions from those they audit.
According to Zelekha, the necessary legislation to solve the problem already exists, but its implementation leaves much to be desired.
He added that all the changes he is recommending in the watchdogs' roles will be quite simple to implement.
Another key component in the fight against public corruption is the management of government ministries, and in particular the ministry directors general.
Zelekha spoke out against the practice whereby directors general are considered personal appointments made by the relevant ministers, and can therefore be appointed even if they lack appropriate experience and qualifications.
"In every government company, however small it may be, every appointment of every director requires the approval of an outside committee headed by a judge," Zelekha said. "It is necessary to institute a similar process for [ministry] directors general and division heads," he added
He also called for publicizing the conflict of interest agreements signed by public officials.
"There is nothing improper about conflicts of interest. Everyone has conflicts of interest. I do, too. But there is a need to publicize them so that they are transparent. My conflict of interest agreement is available on the Internet, so that everyone can see it," Zelekha explained.
He added that while political appointments can still be made, the candidates should be required to demonstrate "exceptional qualifications" in such cases.
"A person should not be ruled out if he has a political affiliation, but he must show that he is more qualified than others in order to receive the appointment," Zelekha argued.
The third key to fighting corruption is the political echelon.
However, Zelekha said, "neither the watchdogs nor the politicians themselves know what is permissible and what is not permissible for a politician to do. Therefore, even if you feel that something is not proper, you do not always know what to do about it."
He therefore called for setting ethical rules for politicians, arguing that "otherwise, it will be very difficult to stop such people."
Nevertheless, the accountant general said that he was optimistic about the fight against corruption: "The civil service is mostly clean, pure and committed. The faults are correctable, and we can easily fix them."
The conference was held in Herzliya and dealt withthe connections between wealth, government and power struggles. The moderator was Haaretz's legal commentator, Ze'ev Segal.