The state's witness protection authority will not launch its program before 2008, over two years since the government approved its formation, authority head Arye Livneh told the Knesset Internal Affairs Committee on Tuesday.

Committee Chairman Ophir Pinez-Paz called the delay "a strategic malfunction," and expressed skepticism that even the 2008 deadline would be met.

Livneh, who has been the authority's head since February, briefed the Internal Affairs Committee on its beginnings in 2002, when a task force began work on the project, submitting its recommendations two years later. The government approved its formation in 2006.

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The authority was charged with the development of a system by which witnesses at risk could be moved abroad and afforded physical protection by the state.

Internal Affairs Committee Chairman MK Pines-Paz criticized the committee's slow progress.

"It is beyond me how the chief of police could implement his plan to combat crime without the ability to operate a witness protection authority," Pines-Paz said.

He added that he doubts the authority will become operational even by 2008, as it lacks a budget and sufficient manpower.