Last update - 00:00 19/07/2007
MK calls for probe of gov't response to comptroller report
By Zvi Zrahiya, Haaretz Correspondent
The head of the Knesset's State Control Committee, which oversees the workings of the state comptroller, called on Thursday for the opening of a special Knesset investigative committee to examine the handling of home front preparations before the start of last summer's war in Lebanon.
MK Zevulun Orlev (NRP), on Thursday announced that if the government does not take steps to implement the recommendations of State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss's report on the management of the home front during the second Lebanon War, he will open a special hearing to vote on opening the investigative committee.
Orlev on Thursday stated that he was "disappointed and disturbed by the response I hear from the Prime Minister's Office and the Israel Defense Forces on the report's findings. My feeling is that the government is attempting to delegitimize the state comptroller and the report's findings. I am afraid that the government and it's representatives are under the impression that they don't need to heed the findings of the report, and this disturbs me greatly."
Orlev expressed certainty that the Control Committee would be able to attain a majority in favor of opening the special investigative committee, even though eight of the 15 MKs in the Control Committee are from parties that form the coalition government.
Orlev believes that his initiative will win the support of coalition MKs in the committee, including Shelly Yahimovitch (Labor), who informed Orlev that she will support the initiative.
Yahimovitch stated that the report's findings illustrate "disgraceful failings on the part of the government towards its citizens."
Under Israeli law, the Control Committee has the authority to open an investigative committee in response to state comptroller report findings. In special cases such as the home front report issued this week, the committee is not required to attain the approval of the comptroller to form the special panel; it needs only the approval of a majority of committee members.
Orlev added that heeding the report's recommendations is not a political or personal issue, but an issue of national importance of the first order.