Matanyahu Engelman, Israel's State Comptroller and State Ombudsman, published the 2019 annual report, which showed the Transportation Ministry as the ministry which received the most complaints.
According to the report, the State Comptroller received 14,263 complaints regarding the Transportation Ministry over the course of 2019.
The four bodies most commonly complained about were the Transportation and Road Safety Ministry, the Health Ministry, the National Insurance Institute, and Israel Post.
The report also showed that over the past three years, the number of complaints regarding the Transportation Ministry had risen 1.8 times, while the number of complaints about the Health Ministry had risen 2.4 times. On the other hand, the number of complaints regarding Israel Post dropped 21%.
Of the complaints, over a third - 35.3% - were deemed legitimate after being fully investigated. Broken down by institution, 75.3% of complaints against Israel Post were found to be legitimate, compared to 69.2% of complaints against the Health Ministry, 53.4% of complaints against the Labor, Welfare, an Social Services Ministry, 42.6% of complaints against the Transportation Ministry, 41% of complaints against the Tax Authority, and 38.2% of complaints against the Education Ministry.
The report also showed that in Tel Aviv and southern Israel, there were more complaints per 10,000 residents, while in the Haifa area and northern district the number of complaints per 10,000 residents was lower.
"The more people know of this important tool and use our services,.the more we will be able to help additional people. The bodies for which there is a high number of complaints and/or a rise over the years should conduct internal investigations and pay attention to learning lessons from the issue - and we will continue to follow," Engelman said. He also said that due to the increased awareness, "for the first time, there will be a State Comptroller Day in the Knesset, and I am glad of that."
Transportation and Road Safety Minister Miri Regev (Likud) responded: "The report does not discuss [what happened] during my time in office. I intend to learn the report and to shake up the Ministry's systems, in order to ensure that the Ministry provides proper service to citizens."