Finance Minister Ronny Bar-On will not be able to fire Chief Accountant Dr. Yaron Zelicha in the near future. State Comptroller and Ombudsman Micha Lindenstrauss issued a temporary protective order Wednesday instructing Bar-On to refrain from carrying out his decision to end Zelicha's term of office.
Lindenstrauss explained his decision by saying that "there is no doubt that Dr. Zelicha is a whistleblower. In the past, there were attempts to cut short his term of office and the Attorney General prevented this." Lindenstrauss raised the possibility that now, too, the decision to let Zelicha go was reached because he exposed corruption.
Bar-On had planned to present the government on Sunday with his decision to appoint Shuki Oren in Zelicha's place. He will now have to wait until Lindenstrauss completes his inquiry into the matter of Zelicha's dismissal.