Documents left publicly exposed in city hall

Among the documents are details of residents' property tax payments and financial status.

By MIRIAM BULWAR DAVID-HAY (TRANSLATED)
Hundreds or thousands of personal files and documents are lying around unsupervised for all to see in the corridors of Tel Aviv's City Hall, an expose by www.mynet.co.il has found. Among the documents are details of residents' property tax payments and financial status, National Insurance Institute investigations into disabilities, requisition orders for debtors' possessions, and details of legal investigations into debts and debtors. According to the report, the many files, folders and documents are piled in unlocked, unsupervised cupboards in the corridor of City Hall's third floor, which houses the Property Tax and Collections Department. The report said that any passerby can look through the documents without hindrance and can even remove them without anyone seeing. It said its reporter looked through sensitive and confidential information with "unbearable ease." A municipal spokesman denied that confidential information was being exposed in public, saying that the documents were kept in closed files in cupboards. The spokesman added that when the department moves to a computerized collections enforcement system in January 2009, the documents will be scanned into the system and then kept in a central archive.