The State Comptroller, Micha Lindenstrauss, presented his final annual report to
Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin on Tuesday morning, the last of its kind before
his seven-year term of office ends in July.
The 64-chapter report
includes detailed sections on every government body including health issues and
defense.
Rivlin thanked Lindenstrauss for his tenure as state
comptroller, adding that his role in auditing the government was "the long arm
and watchful eye of the Knesset as a representative of the state." The role of
state comptroller is to audit public institutions, including ministries, the
army and security services as well as all bodies managed by the
state.
During Lindenstrauss's term, the office of the state comptroller
had "become independent and there is almost real-time control", Rivlin added.
Lindenstrauss said that the report was the largest in terms of scope, and that
it contained chapters dealing with government ministries and the security
forces.
Special attention had been devoted to weaker sections of Israeli
society, the state comptroller added, and to ultra-Orthodox service in the
army.
The state comptroller added that there was "no democracy without
criticism", and said he would file a further two reports before his retirement,
on the Carmel Fire and the Harpaz Affair.
The Harpaz report would be
ready "within several days", Lindenstrauss said, and the Carmel Fire report
would be submitted during the coming month.
The Carmel Fire report was
almost complete, Lindenstrauss said, and was waiting for testimony from one more
person.
During his seven year term as state comptroller, Lindenstrauss
has gained a reputation for being relentless fighter against government
corruption and has insisted on naming those government officials deemed
responsible for failures.
Lindenstrauss's term of office officially ends
on July 3rd, and Jerusalem District Court Judge Joseph Shapira has been touted
as the leading candidate to replace him. Knesset will vote on Lindenstrauss's
replacement in a secret ballot on May 14, even if Knesset holds a break for
elections, Rivlin said on Tuesday.
Rivlin noted that so far, one
candidate has been put forward to replace Lindenstrauss and said that other
potential candidates had until Friday to nominate themselves. The Knesset
speaker added that he hoped there would be an additional two candidates.
The Jerusalem Post will be providing full coverage of the semi-annual State Comptroller's report.