State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss found that Olmert arranged jobs in the ministry for members of the Likud Central Committee – in effect buying their loyalty.
“We are talking here about people who came into the office once a month, got their money, and supported whoever they were supposed to support,” investigative journalist Micky Rosenthal told Army Radio Monday, explaining the significance of the report. “We are not talking about a job even – these are not people who worked – this is simply public money being handed over to these people as bribes.”
The State Comptroller’s Report on the Israel Small and Medium Enterprise Authority (ISMEA) levels harsh criticism on both Olmert, and Director-General of the Prime Minister’s Office Raanan Dinur – who served in the same position under Olmert when he headed the Ministry of Industry and Trade under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Among the misdeeds outlined in the report are:
* Olmert and Dinur appointed numerous senior members of the Likud Central Committee’s governing body to positions in the ministry.
* In 2004, Olmert and Dinur acted "to change the authority’s statutes in order to allow much more flexibility in appointing an official to the authority and in allocating his or her budget." This, the report states, was a premeditated facilitation of the policy of politically-motivated appointments.
* Olmert appointed his close ally Lilach Nehemia as deputy secretary-general of the Ministry – a new position created by the aforementioned statutory adjustment. Just a year earlier, Nehemia’s candidacy for a position on the state’s tourism company was rejected due to her “ties to special interests.”
* After Nehemia’s arrival, new projects were initiated enabling the hiring of three Likud Central Committee members – two of them vying for the position of secretary of the party. The report states that the three - Shimon Moshe, Yitzhak Michaeli and Yaakov Fadida – were hired unfairly, bypassing the legal process and preventing others from having a fair chance at the job. The projects, with official titles but rarely entailing more responsibilities than the authoring of a report, were not even included in the annual work schedule.
* Shimon Moshe, one of the Central Committee men appointed, was also nominated by Olmert to become deputy director of the Employment Service, although he lacked the educational requirements stipulated by law. Once the overseeing committee found out, they retracted their approval of the appointment. His job as project manager was also revoked following a Supreme Court petition. He was soon appointed to manage another project under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
Comptroller Lindenstrauss said Monday that he had turned over his findings to Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz, who is expected to recommend the necessary legal action against the prime minister. Lindenstrauss’s report implicating MK Tzachi HaNegbi in such behavior just prior to the formation of the Kadima Party led to an indictment against the Olmert ally for similar actions.
The Small and Medium Sized Business Authority said it would internalize the report and ensure that the loopholes enabling such occurrences are blocked.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office issued a statement in defense. In response to the allegations that he acted to change guidelines in order to enable cronyism, Olmert responded: “The administration of the Ministry of Trade and Industry acted to change the statutes in order to implement the findings of an external report written by an organizational consultant which pointed to deficiencies in the authority in the previous period.”
Regarding the positions added after the changes were made, the Olmert statement explained, “It was the administrative committee that initiated the addition of a deputy secretary-general when it explicitly requested it. Due to the fact that the requirements of the administration of the Ministry of Industry and Trade for budgetary checks were met, the administration saw no reason to interfere with such decisions, which were reasonable and practical.”
With regard to the high-paid project managers, Olmert’s statement said: “The administration of the Ministry of Trade and Industry was not involved in the hiring process of the three project managers, aside from the letter of recommendation the director-general was asked to submit regarding Mr. Shimon Moshe. The letter relied on Mr. Shimon Moshe’s work toward establishing an industrial area for the disabled in Kiryat Malachi; it should be noted that a similar letter of recommendation was written by the director-general of the Joint Distribution Committee."