State comptroller slams 'wasteful' pre-election spending
Lindenstrauss says 'extremely unreasonable spending prior to elections for 18th Knesset could indicate lack of control
A report published by the State Comptroller's Office on Monday leveled harsh criticism at the pre-election spending of several Knesset factions, calling it a "wasteful use of public funds."
"I view the parties' wasteful use of public funds intended to finance their election campaign with the utmost severity," Micha Lindenstrauss said in the report, adding that "extremely unreasonable spending that could indicate a lack of control is a serious issue, which should not be passed over in silence."
The report singled out Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu party, saying it spent NIS 212,000 (about $56,000) on its fist campaign-launching conference, and an additional NIS 187,000 (about $50,000) on a conference marking the end of its campaign.
The party also signed an agreement with a media consulting firm, according to which the advisers would be paid a base salary of $90,000, in addition to a $10-20,000 bonus for every additional seat beyond the first 12 seats. The company was eventually paid a reported bonus of NIS 336,000 (some $90,000.)
The comptroller also slammed the Labor Party for arranging a similar agreement with its own consultants.
Lindenstrauss wrote that "beyond abusing the duty to spend public funds with restraint, this kind of agreement could open the way for negative trends, perhaps to the extent of staining the elections' purity."
The report also mentioned the Balad party, saying it spent some NIS 175,000 (about $47,000) on fuel and fuel vouchers before the elections for the 18th Knesset.
Lindenstrauss said calculations conducted by State Comptroller's Office employees found that 33,000 liters of 95 octane gas or 29,000 liters of diesel could have been bought with that amount of money, equivalent to 300,000 km of travel, "an unreasonable amount considering the travel costs of an election campaign."
In addition, the report stated that the Labor party purchased three 37-inch television screens for a total of NIS 14,726 ($4,000), and then sold them at half price to party activists once the elections concluded.
Lindenstrauss also slammed the Knesset factions' increasing debt, which climbed from a combined total of NIS 170 million ($45 million) in 2008 to NIS 240 million ($64 million) by February, 2009.
