By JPOST.COM STAFF
The General accountant of the Finance Ministry, Dr. Yaron Zleicha, said on Tuesday that the public treasury was being overtaken by "court journalists, court advisors and court interpreters who sold their souls."
Zleicha was present in the meeting of the State Comptroller Committee (SCC) of the Knesset and claimed he was being threatened and pursued. According to Zleicha "ugliness has taken over the treasury. The keeper of the treasury is not an ornament or the icing on a cake. If the keeper is a marionette, he is part of the problem."
The SCC was convening regarding the appointment of new accountants in government offices by the offices' managers and not by the general accountant. The committee's chairman, MK Zevulun Orlev (NU/NRP), probed Zleicha into disclosing the essence of the threats Zleicha mentioned, but was refused. Zleicha said the issue was being investigated by the police and that he was prohibited from revealing the details.
Zleicha maintained that the move to make office managers responsible to appoint accountants instead of the general accountant is just another step in a series of actions aimed at discrediting the general accountant's position. The Finance Ministry took other responsibilities from him, including the management of the Bank Yahac tender, which, he claimed, could have saved up to NIS 40 million to the state.
The manager of the Prime Minister's Office, Ra'anan Dinur, said against Zleicha that "the issue is a tempest in a tea cup. There is no factual basis to linking the question of appointing office accountants and the general accountant's position. This is a reform we have been discussing since May."