State Comptroller: Third of all public complaints justified, Rehovot complaint against police noted

State Comptroller: Third of all public complaints justified

Lindesntrauss states that majority of complaints lodged with him since 2007 are justified, including unjust property taxes, government offices without Russian speakers

State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, the public ombudsman, has reviewed a total of 9,749 complaints in 2007, 33.7% of which he believes were justified.

Topping the list of offending institutions was the National Insurance Institute of Israel which faced 998 complaints, followed by the Israel Police which faced 577, complaints and the Justice Ministry which faced 355 complaints. The Finance Ministry, Interior Ministry, Education Ministry and Science, Culture and Sport Ministry are next on this list of top offenders.

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Of the long list of complaints that were lodged with the state comptroller, 64% of all complaints lodged against the Transportation Ministry and 45% of complaints lodged against the police department and court system were found to have merit.

The overwhelming majority of all complaints, some 80% to be exact, were formally lodged by members of Knesset. Knesset Member Zevulun Orlev (National Union-National Religious Party) lodged 70% of these aforementioned complaints, with MK Ami Ayalon (Labor), MK Shelly Yacimovich (Labor), MK Arieh Eldad (NU-NRP), and MK Ran Cohen (Meretz) lodging two complaints apiece.

No Russian speakers available

Here are a few examples of the shortcoming and failings of our public institutions, as highlighted in the report presented by Lindenstrauss Wednesday:

A complaint lodged against the Ministry of Education indicated that a Russian speaker, who petitioned to have his foreign Doctorate degree evaluated with the ministry’s Division for Evaluation of Foreign Academic Degrees and Diplomas, was denied his claim because he had written the ministry in Russian and no Russian speakers were available to translate.

A Rehovot driver lodged a complaint with the city’s police department for their failure to locate and apprehend a fellow motorist which drove recklessly and threatened him while on the road. The complainant gave police officers the offender’s name, as well as two telephone numbers where he could be reached, but the police failed to follow up on the case and apprehend the offending party.

The complaint was found by the comptroller to have merit, as the Rehovot Police were clearly negligent in their investigation. The Police Department’s Central District Chief informed the comptroller’s office that disciplinary action will be taken against the three police officers involved in this case.

A resident of Dir Hanna in the Galilee petitioned the state comptroller after the town’s local council charged his son property taxes for a building that the son did not own. All charges owed by the alleged property owner were canceled, and the city’s property tax division was instructed not to collect property taxes from individuals until there is definitive proof that construction on the property is complete and it is fit for use... view article text in full at the original publisher web site, ynetnews.com