Government red tape on the rise, businesses say

Business people waited about 23 weeks to have their cases dealt with, an increase from last year.

By NADAV SHEMER
Workers in an office 300 (photo credit: Thinkstock)
Workers in an office 300
(photo credit: Thinkstock)
Bureaucratic red tape increased slightly in the government sector in the second quarter, with the National Insurance Institute most to blame, according to a survey of business people commissioned by the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce.
“Businesses pay a very high price for excessive bureaucracy,” FICC president Uriel Lynn said. The government must take direct responsibility for fixing this situation, not through spending but through providing detailed instruction to bureaucrats on how to do their jobs properly, he said.
The quarterly survey, which is conducted by the Geocartography Institute and SQ, ranks seven offices by how they interact with the business sector in four categories: availability of customer-service representatives, the amount of time it takes to attend to each case, the level of personal attention and the quality of solutions offered to customers.
In the first quarter of 2011 the offices achieved a combined average score of 6.84 out of 10, their best performance since the survey began in 2008. But in the second quarter the average decreased to 6.80, mainly as a result of a poor showing from the NII, which fell from 7.49 to 7.16.
The Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry topped the list with a score of 7.26, followed by the Transportation Ministry (7.22) and the NII. The Interior Ministry recorded a score of 6.80, the Health Ministry 6.66, the Israel Tax Authority 6.64 and the judicial system 6.08.
Business people waited about 23 weeks to have their cases dealt with by the courts system, the poll found, an increase from the 18.5 weeks reported in last year’s final survey.