Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz
Photo: Dudi Vaaknin
MK Lia Shemtov
Photo: Hagai Aharon
Treasury suspends cut in relief groups' funding
Report on near-clandestine decision to annul funding of dozens of government sponsored social projects results in Finance Ministry decision to halt cut for six months
The Finance Ministry announced Wednesday that it was suspending a budget cut which stood to affect hundreds of government funded projects linked to various social relief groups.
The proposed cut pertained to groups receiving up to NIS 500,000 (about $127,000) in government funding and it stands to be reviewed again in six months.
Crunch
Yael Branovsky
Israeli Civic Leadership Association holds emergency conference, reveals hundreds of relief groups face dire operational difficulties in a time when dependents' numbers increase
Ynet recently learned that the somewhat clandestine cut was decided on by the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee in late 2008.
Only three Knesset members participated in the vote and none of the associations or government bureaus which stood to suffer from the cut were represented in the meeting.
Many relief groups, already struggling due to the donation shrinkage caused by the financial crisis, warned that they would have no choice but to shut down completely, and appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog to overturn the decision.
With the looming cut threatening to affect the immigrants' sector the most, the Knesset's Committee for Immigration, and Absorption called an emergency meeting, where Attorney Baruch Lubart, from the Treasury's legal office, informed its members of the decision to suspend the cut.
"Following appeals by several bodies, the Accountant General's Office has decided to suspend implementing the cut for six months, while the situation in reassessed," said Lubart.
The heated meeting saw representatives of various immigrant associations accuse the Treasury of "terrorizing" them.
Knesset Member Lוa Shemtov (Yisrael Beiteinu), who heads the Immigration and Absorption Committee urged the treasury to annul the cut altogether, saying it would be "a severe blow to immigrants and to all the other sectors which rely on relief groups for assistance."
Dmitri Aparchev, director-general of the Immigrant Absorption Ministry, noted that the majority of people working for the groups in jeopardy were volunteers, adding that if the cut was implemented, the public's faith in the system would be lost.
