Is Yisrael Katz in hot water?
צילום: חיים זיו
Minister faces police interrogation
Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz called in for questioning by fraud squad investigators Tuesday morning over apparently improper political appointments uncovered in scathing state comptroller’s report
TEL AVIV – Agriculture Minister Yisrael Katz was called in for questioning Tuesday morning at the national fraud squad over a political appointments scandal exposed by the state comptroller.
Following the publication of the scathing state comptroller’s report in May of this year, Attorney General Menachem Nazuz instructed police to launch a criminal investigation into charges of improper appointments at the Agriculture Ministry. However, initially Mazuz ordered that investigators focus on the suspicions and not on Minister Katz himself.
However, after it turned out there are apparent suspicions involving the minister himself, he has been called in for interrogation.
Recently, Mazuz wrote Katz a letter regarding the suspicions against him.
“The report indicates that the reform in agricultural councils was exploited for making political and improper appointments. In this context, we should emphasize the responsibility held by you, both in terms of overall responsibility over what goes on in the bodies under your jurisdiction, as well as direct responsibility over flawed appointed in those bodies,” Mazuz wrote.
“I wish to sound the alarm regarding the duty you are tasked with to strictly ensure that such phenomena do not repeat,” the attorney general added.
Recently, Mazuz also instructed that two senior Agricultural Ministry officials be removed from their posts at once.
Damming report
The state’s comptroller’s report indicated that 11 of the 24 new seasonal workers hired by the Agricultural Supervision Authority were members of the Likud Central Committee, while four others were the sons of Central Committee members. Another new employee was also a Likud activist.
According to the report, the Agriculture Ministry witnessed a long series of appointments that ignored regulations and showed a clear political preference. Moreover, the ministry functioned without a legal advisor for an extended period of time, raising suspicions that at certain timeframes there was no monitoring of new appointments, the report said.
As it turned out, many assistants at the ministry’s director-general’s office were Likud Central Committee members and their relatives.
Katz, however, dismissed the charges in the past and said he never supported, directly or indirectly, an improper or political appointment.
-Diana Bahur-Nir also contributed to the report
