Flights at the expense of research
Report: Suffering Israeli academia managed irresponsibly
State comptroller looks into who is responsible for bankruptcy of Israeli academic institutions, discovers exceptional retirement packages, inflated bonuses, funds for non-tenured professors, business class flights funded by research budgets, and more
In their highly publicized struggle, university presidents have claimed that the current economic crisis has dug into their activities and is likely to cause damage for generations to come. However, State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss published a special report on Israeli higher education indicating gross mismanagement of funds and irresponsible spending as the culprit for bringing the State's universities to the brink of bankruptcy.
According to retired Judge Lindenstrauss, universities in Israel, who have billion-shekel budgets at their disposal, do whatever they please without any regard for the guidelines and rules of budget management that are meant to maintain economic fitness. Lindenstrauss noted that the spending sprees characteristic of the universities in recent years have been undertaken without any real oversight.
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The report reveals monetary bonuses outside the accepted standards, stipends for non-faculty professors, business class tickets abroad funded by research budgets, and more.
According to the report, the universities' true economic state of affairs are not represented by the published balance sheets, and they systematically try to avoid any and all form of regulation. For instance, no future commitments for workers' rights that have accumulated for years have been listed (a notable exception to this is Haifa University).
The Planning and Budgeting Committee of the Israel Council for Higher Education is indicated in the report for collaborating with the universities in covering up their deficits through the publication of partial reports even though the committee was fully aware of the overspending and its negative consequences.
An extensive examination performed by the State Comptrollers' Office revealed large discrepancies in salaries, pensions, retirement packages, and other such benefits, mostly without any authorization from the Ministry of Finance. Lindenstrauss labeled such spending "irresponsible." The debts accrued by the institutions of higher learning stand at about NIS 10 billion (about $2.5 billion), without any reserve ensuring that the debts can be covered. In light of these figures, "smaller amounts were left to fulfill the main purpose – teaching and research."
Salary expenditures are a main component of university spending. Lindenstrauss mentioned in the report that a main method for minimizing expenditures in this area such that funds can be directed to their main goals is canceling preferential salary terms and salary discrepancies via the Finance Ministry.
However, "university heads have for years and continue to do all in their power to prevent the ministry from enforcing real and effective oversight of the universities," the report claimed.
How much do they make?
Another reason for the widespread budget deficits is seen in the salary statistics for senior university faculty in 2005. According to the state comptroller, these figures are high according to any measurement in relation to the average salary of that year that was authorized by the Finance Ministry for senior positions.
Faculty stipends in 2002 were also higher in total by some NIS 30 million (about $7.5 million) than is stipulated by budget regulations. This number jumped to NIS 50 million ($12 million) in 2006. The universities, the state comptroller's report states, never requested authorization for these budget discrepancies.
Lindenstrauss also revealed a number of business-class flights abroad paid for with money from the science fund, intended for research and scientific conferences. All the universities, except for the Open University, allowed faculty to purchase tickets in business class on the expense of the fund. Such flights were not cleared with the fund.
Responses
The Israel Council for Higher Education responded by saying that the comptroller's report "is an important report from which many lessons should be drawn from its findings that will lead to a change in employment arrangements and increased efficiency in the education system in general, and the Council for Higher Education in particular. The comments and recommendations made by the state comptroller will be raised for a very serious and intensive discussion in the near future in the Planning and Budgeting Committee and in the Israel Council of Higher Education's plenum."
On the issue of oversight, the Council responded, "The Planning and Budgeting Committee sees the Ministry of Finance as the determining body and the sole responsible authority for enforcing any discrepancy in regards to salary terms in public institutions for higher education in Israel. The Committee will continue to collaborate, as it does today, with the ministry on this issue, and will pass on figures on this subject that it receives.
"It is important to note that the Committee has no possibility to enforce salary conditions because the ministry does not confer upon it its authority to do so as stipulated in the budget foundation law."
