As of June 2021 the State Comptroller’s Office had a lot of work to do towards the end of writing the Corona report, which is known to have found many flaws in the conduct of the previous government. We then published in Globes that the State Comptroller had stated that “the recommendations of the professional echelons in the Corona crisis have not been implemented” and that failures in information were found. In light of the fact that this was a media-sensitive report, the State Comptroller’s Office raised concerns that materials would leak out. The State Comptroller instructed the few who dealt with the report to sign a confidentiality form not to discuss the report with anyone other than those who are also exposed to the findings and data.
Under the heading “Directive of the State Comptroller regarding the confidentiality of the task of budgetary conduct in the Corona crisis – crisis management and preparation for the future”, the authorized persons were asked to sign the form. All but one agreed to sign the “Keep the Secret” document. The Deputy Attorney General of the Office of the Comptroller, Dr. Yitzhak Becker, finally signed, but added many reservations that in fact completely emptied his commitment to maintaining confidentiality.
The background for the signing of the unusual document was a conversation between State Comptroller Netanyahu Engelman and the office of the then Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit in June 2021 regarding the eradication of the leaks. It should be noted that even without the signing of a “secret guard” document, section 23 of the State Comptroller’s Law obliges in any case the comptroller’s employees to maintain confidentiality in the context of their work in the office.
Globes has learned that shortly after Engelman made the decision to sign the confidentiality document, and before the signing request was forwarded to the relevant employees, Dr. Becker issued a letter to the firm’s legal counsel, Adv. Yoel Hadar, with the headline “Exposing corruption in the firm State Comptroller”. Becker stated that he had no choice but to “expose the corruption and vulnerability in proper administration to a neutral and objective party outside the office for his examination.” But apart from this general law Becker did not elaborate on the corruption he blames.
Dr. Becker claimed corruption at the top of the firm – but did not provide evidence
The general allegations are against all parties in the firm’s management. The ministry has repeatedly asked for details and even suggested that the more it does not trust these factors, the more it will raise the allegations before the legal adviser of the Public Complaints Commission. Becker refused all of these proposals, arguing that there was a conflict of interest and that it was unreasonable for him to pass allegations of corruption to elements concerned with corruption or that their superiors were infected with corruption. According to Becker, those involved in the corruption include the director general of the State Comptroller’s Office and the State Comptroller himself, Matanyahu Engelman.
After a series of correspondence with Becker, Becker turned to the Quality of Government Movement and asked her to represent him before the State Comptroller’s Office. But even the movement had no details of allegations of corruption. In September 2021, the movement’s warning letter stated that “from the very beginning it should be noted that the same employee (Yitzhak Becker – AG) did not provide the movement with the details of the cases, but only their existence, and that the movement has no information about the content of the acts. It is alleged that they are rising to an improper manager. The purpose of this request, then, is the issue of the relevant factor for receiving the complaint from the same employee. “
In a reply letter to the Movement for Quality of Government, the Attorney General of the Office of the State Comptroller, Adv. Yoel Hadar, wrote: “The very fact that Adv. Not proper ‘, let alone’ acts of corruption ‘, and in light of the existing circumstances it seems that there is a difference on the part of Advocate Becker between the cases. In fact, for the past three and a half months, Adv. Becker has “created” seemingly serious allegations against officials in the firm’s management, when he only claims the very existence of the acts, but refrains from presenting any information or document that supports these allegations. “
Today, the Movement for Quality of Government petitioned the High Court demanding that the State Comptroller allow the comptroller to transfer his evidence of corruption to an external party, outside the State Comptroller’s Office. As in previous documents, Claims. In fact, the Movement for the Quality of Government explicitly says that it has no idea what the same alleged corruption is. The movement only asks the High Court. To determine a factor to which the materials will be transferred.
Exposing acts of corruption or evading a commitment to secrecy?
In fact, the schedules of the allegation of exposing the corruption close to the signing requirement of confidentiality raise the concern that it was born in retrospect as an attempt to evade a commitment to confidentiality in the audit work intended to prevent leaks. There are those in the Comptroller’s Office who claim that Becker, like other people in the office, did not accept Engelman’s election to the position despite the long time that has elapsed since his appointment by the Knesset.
A survey conducted by Globes shows that this is not the first time that Becker has used the same method of blaming his superiors. The previous time was at his previous place of work, the Custodian General of the Ministry of Justice. In April 2006, journalist Omri Assenheim published a comprehensive article in Maariv’s Weekend magazine. There, too, similar claims were made by Becker about the purity of the then guardian, Shlomo Shachar. Becker then turned to the commission and according to what was published in Maariv, “Becker was answered by the Civil Service Commission because his claim was examined and found to be incorrect.”
The Movement for Quality of Government, representing the Deputy Attorney General of the Comptroller’s Office, Dr. Yitzhak Becker, stated in response that “this is a senior and esteemed employee of the State Comptroller’s Office, a public servant who for years had previously received recommendations from his managers. From the moment he approached the Movement for Quality of Government, the movement went into the thick of things to examine the precedent issue at hand and its interest in the lack of a matter-of-fact and conflict-of-interest response to an employee of the State Comptroller’s Office seeking to complain about an improper manager.
It was expected from the State Comptroller’s Office that from the moment a claim of conflict of interest arose, a solution to the matter would be found. We are sorry that attempts are now being made to blacken Dr. Becker, precisely from the trust factor for the protection of whistleblowers in Israel, and this under a matter-of-fact reference to the essential question – and that is what is the address of complaints by the State Comptroller? “.
The State Comptroller’s Office stated in response to the petition: “The petition is very puzzling since the petitioners as well as the appellant do not specify any claim as stated in section 43 of the petition. The appellant was offered several times to raise all his claims Any foundation. “