The Finance Ministry on Wednesday announced that the official vehicle of cabinet
ministers will be either a BMW 528i or a Citroen C5 Exclusive.
The move
came after the importers of these models won a state tender.
According to
the ministry, the tender parameters included security, pollution criteria,
typical usage by ministers and other persons in high office and, finally, the
discount importers offered on the models against their market prices.
The
choice is “ostentatious and proves the lack of shame of this government,” Labor
leader Shelly Yechimovich said.
It is “not surprising,” she added, that
the government “chose the most expensive car in the tender...and it is
just another proof of this government’s dissociation from the public it is
intended to serve. While young couples can only dream of buying an apartment,
suffer worsening conditions at work and the cost of living continues to
skyrocket, it wouldn’t hurt government ministers to show some
humility.”
Following criticism from Yechimovich and others, Finance
Minister Yuval Steinitz instructed his ministry to examine whether the tender
could be canceled. He said the criteria for choosing an official vehicle should
not only include their cost but also the car model’s image. The BMW 528i is a
luxury vehicle and its market price is almost NIS 400,000.
Steinitz asked
the Finance Ministry’s director-general to examine whether it would be legal to
publish a new tender that would cap the maximum price of the model selected.