Last update - 00:00 26/04/2007
Interior Minister orders three local authorities dissolved due to withheld wages
By Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent
Interior Minister Roni Bar-On ordered the dissolution of three local authorities due to their poor management and withholding of employees' wages.
The authorities will be replaced by emergency governing committees.
The local authorities to be disolved are those of the Arab villages of Dabburiya and Kfar Kana near Nazareth and the Druze village of Yarka in the western Galilee.
The Interior Ministry said that this is only the first stage of an extended process in which the management of seven local authorities is to be examined.
Bar-On's decision to dissolve the three local authorities is based on recommendations made by Interior Ministry Director-General Ram Belinkov.
In the past few weeks, Belinkov summoned some of the local authority heads to a hearing. Belinkov's recommendations were based on material collected by the Interior Ministry as well as the hearing.
"This is a hard but essential process", said Bar-On. "The time has come to set the standard for responsible and sound management in all local authorities." Bar-On also added that he is "sure that the steps taken now will ensure that crises, such as the holding back of wages, will not occur again in the future."
The Interior Ministry also said that the dissolution of the three local authorities sends a clear message that "irresponsible budget management will no longer be tolerated."
Several emergency governing committees have been established in the past. The law allows the interior minister to dissolve a local authority if an investigation finds severe deficiencies in the management of the authority.
The other four local authorities being investigated, Taibe, Rama, Kfar Manda and Migdal, are still waiting for a decision on their future. Taibe has petitioned to the Supreme Court against the dissolution of the authority.