Barak takes responsibility for excessive spending at Paris Air Show
State Comptroller report rebuked 'wasteful expenditures'; Defense Minister: Won't happen again.
By Amos Harel Tags: Ehud Barak Israel newsDefense Minister Ehud Barak responded for the first time on Tuesday to the State Comptroller report on Barak's exaggerated expenses in the Paris Air Show.
Barak took responsibility for the act and said that he is "responsible for everything that happens in the Defense Ministry, which includes this mishap."
"Lessons were learned and will continue to be learned from this event, and we will make sure that this type of situation will not repeat itself. Mishaps happen and the most important thing is to take care of them. The ability and the obligation to fix situations is most important. And to make sure they don't happen again," Barak said.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss recently issued a report that sharply rebuked what it called wasteful expenditures incurred by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, his entourage and other leading military figures during a visit to the Paris Air Show this summer.
The report blames severe organizational failures for the Air Show delegation's extreme expenses which according to the report, totaled to NIS 1m for the lodgings for Barak and his entourage, and for the other 34 members of the Israeli delegation.
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You will pay it back out of your paychecks one by one or in mass with your group expense. You are more than welcome to work two jobs and pay it back or your spouse can work and pay it back. No way will you be let off that easy. Were there a group of school children taken. Did you take a college with you. Who attended I want on my desk. Sometimes there are reasons it is the reason, or you can pay for a trip for a high school actually a few of them to go. You can invite Air Shows to Israel and pay 1 million into the event by working booth time and paying for the booths and the items inside. Be creative if you were good enough to have a million dollar vacation at an Air Show then you can create ways to give it back to the people you serve. You can always be impeached. Just one person starts impeachment and a new elected official can serve in your place. Rankoo
Is an important venue for marketing aviation related products and services. And thus an impressive and successful presence is quite proper. Lavish 'high on the' (or by the) hog' living is not necessary to achieve that presence. Sounds like Barak and his buddies were living it up without regards for the commercial needs of the nation.
Ministerial responsibility v e r y l i m i t e d Defense Minister Ehud Barak?s responds to State Comptrollers findings and critics comes after more than a week and after the local press dealt with it in particular.- His reply ??Lessons were learned and will continue to be learned from this event, and we will make sure that this type of situation will not repeat itself. Mishaps happen and the most important thing is to take care of them?.? is unfortunately completely unacceptable in view of being a ??way of life?? and even if the next hotel reservations where somewhat cheaper than the top Paris hotel top prices were.- No offer was made to reimburse the public cash neither and apology nor any offer to resigned in view of what Defense Minister declared ??M i s h a p s?? ? Unfortunately Defense Minister Barak approach and way of dealing with public funds seems to be not a single case as well as in the past and nobody seem to have reacted / learned ??to be double careful with public money out of taxes etc?? as the latest wages reports of public employees are published.
If he "takes responsibility", let him reimburse the state. It's the responsible thing to do.