Ministers furious with Olmert's new committee
Cabinet ministers furious at approval of new ministerial committee headed by prime minister that has power to nullify previous cabinet decisions. Call move 'anti-democratic', say it makes ministers' jobs unnecessary
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced on Sunday the establishment of a ministerial committee headed by himself and including two of his close comrades, Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, that would have the authority to revoke any previous cabinet decisions.
A Labor Party official responded to the move saying, "This is a completely anti-democratic decision. The ministers are being turned into marionettes."
Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel attempted to calm the mood, saying, "This is a procedure that will allow decisions that were not carried out to be changed. It is not meant to harm ministers or previous cabinet decisions."
According to the proposal for the establishment of the Ministerial Committee for Monitoring and Supervising the Execution of Cabinet Decisions, "If the committee feels that a decision should be significantly changed, the matter will be brought before the government or the relevant ministerial committee."
The proposal argued that "the committee will be allowed to alter cabinet decisions, in order to enable their execution. In cases where the ministerial committee sees the need to completely nullify previous cabinet decisions, or substantially alter them, the matter will be brought before the government, or the relevant ministerial committee."
'Committee meant to help ministers do their jobs'
Several ministers viewed the proposal as an anti-democratic move. Minister Yitzhak Herzog expressed reservations, but eventually abstained from voting. Shas ministers and Labor Party ministers Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Shalom Simhon harshly objected and voted against the proposal.In response to the decision, a Shas minister said, "There are other ways to monitor the ministers' work without a tool that allows the cancellation of previous cabinet decisions. This makes the ministers' work unnecessary."
Deputy Prime Minister Eli Yishai of Shas said following the decision he requested clarification on the matter and was told by the cabinet secretary that the committee's "only authority was to bring the matter back up to the government or the relevant committees", and that it had no authority to nullify decisions.
Yishai said following the clarification that he was considering removing his objection to the proposal.
Minister Ruhama Avraham, who voted in favor of the proposal, said, "I welcome the establishment of the committee. Since we have reached a situation where, over the past few years and in general, hundreds of cabinet decisions were made and not executed. It is time to take responsibility in the matter and make sure that a government that offers a certain policy actually carries it out."
In response to the ministers' objections, the cabinet secretary's office explained that "the decision is only meant to act as a tool for the good of the ministers. It is not meant, heaven forbid, to harm their authority, but the contrary. Everyone agrees that the situation in which decisions are made and not carried out must be stopped.
"The government must keep its commitment to the public. The new committee will be a tool that will help the ministers do their jobs," it said.
