Comptroller likely can finish Harpaz report
06/25/2012 04:20
Ministerial Committee on Legislation gives outgoing Lindenstrauss 3 months to finish report despite term ending, pending Knesset approval.
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss Photo: Ariel Jerozolimski
State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss will likely be able to complete his
investigation of the Harpaz Affair following a decision Sunday by the
Ministerial Committee on Legislation.
Lindenstrauss is due to complete
his term on Sunday, but he had not finished his report on the Harpaz scandal,
which involves alleged forgery by a confidant of former IDF chief of staff Gabi
Ashkenazi.
The committee decided to give him three months to finish the
report because he had already submitted a rough draft. Lindenstrauss will
apparently not be able to finalize his report on the so-called “Bibitours”
scandal about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s trips abroad because no rough
draft was submitted.
The bill must now be passed in the Knesset, which is
not expected to be a problem now that it has the support of the coalition’s 94
MKs.
The bill’s sponsor, State Control Committee chairman Uri Ariel
(National Union), promised to expedite the bill’s passage.
Ariel called
the legislation important and said there was no reason why Lindenstrauss would
not be able to complete all his reports just like judges are permitted to
complete their rulings after they retire.
Likud and Habayit Hayehudi
ministers voted in favor, Shas abstained, and there were no votes from the two
ministers Lindenstrauss targeted in last week’s Carmel fire report, Finance
Minister Yuval Steinitz and Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch.