After taking an unusual step against the grant plan approved by Finance Minister Lieberman to local authorities, Yishai Ben Eli, senior deputy accountant at the Ministry of Finance, sent a letter to the Israel Land Authority and the Ministry of Housing, directing them to freeze and postpone land tenders for housing units. For the same grants. “
Ben Eli notes in the letter that so far the Ministry of Finance has located a budget source in the amount of only NIS 93 million for the purpose of financing the incentive for local authorities. This is an incentive in the amount of NIS 30,000 for each new housing unit, ie “a budget has been found that provides a solution for only up to 3,100 apartments, and allows tenders to be published and closed only to the extent stated.”
This is a negligible amount in relation to the planned and existing marketing in the Israel Land Authority. So far, since the beginning of the year, Remi has marketed land for the construction of 36,259 housing units, out of an annual target for marketing land for 84,000 housing units, and after 2021, land was marketed for 101,777 housing units. The Deputy Accountant General clarifies in a letter issued today that “in the case of tenders that have already been published, and for which there is no budgetary source (as stated), it is necessary to postpone the closing date until a source is located.” In addition, he notes, “booklets or brochure updates that include the incentive cannot be approved.”
At the same time, the Accountant General notes that the Ministry of Finance “is working to find budgetary sources, whatever they may be, that will allow for further marketing,” and that they are “holding a dialogue with the relevant parties, in order to advance the solution.”
Deputy Attorney General Carmit Ulysses was also required to decide on the granting of grants to local authorities. Ulysses ruled that this was not a violation of the authority of the Israel Lands Council, but she demanded that the council explain why the deviant move was promoted in an unusual way than in the past, how the council reached a budget decision of NIS 30,000, and why the budget is not differential.
According to Ulysses, “providing a benefit at such a significant rate may raise complex legal issues and it is appropriate to bring to an end the professional discourse on the matter between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Housing.”
Senior finance officials opposed the distribution of grants to local authorities
Last week, the Israel Lands Council decided to distribute grants to local authorities, designed to reduce their opposition to adding apartments in their territory, through budgets earmarked to fund the establishment of public institutions, “resulting directly from increased marketing.” According to the decision, half of the amount, NIS 15,000, will be given when the land is marketed for construction and the other half will be given when the building permits themselves are issued. Like any budgetary decision made by the council, the body responsible for determining Israel’s land policy, its approval required the signature of the finance minister, which was made and celebrated earlier this week at a media press conference hosted by Minister Lieberman, in collaboration with Interior Minister Shaked and Housing Minister Elkin.
However, following that decision, this week the Accountant General of the Ministry of Finance, Yahli Rotenberg, and the head of the budget department, Yogev Gardos, sent an unusual and unusual letter, in which they demanded “to indicate now a budgetary source to finance this expenditure.” The two oppose the government’s intention to use the budget of the Israel Land Authority in favor of distributing those grants, which are expected to cost at least NIS 1.5-2 billion (NIS 50,000-67,000).
Rotenberg and Gardos stressed that “the essence of the approved decision is to create an incentive for local authorities to market housing, an action that is already budgeted in the state budget by the Interior Ministry and as part of the government’s priorities, which are reflected in the state budget. Only for the transfer of state funds to local authorities. ” The two insist that the implementation of the decision and the issuance of those grants be included in the budget of the Ministry of Housing and not be charged to the budget of Rami, a government authority defined as a “business enterprise” and its revenues and expenditures do not form part of the state budget. In income and in the matter of calculating the deficit. “