Despite the harsh criticism against the practice, the state continues to pay for the upkeep costs of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's private residence in Caesarea.
A document which details the communications between the Prime Minister's Office and landscaping firms reveals that the current contract includes gardening expenses of NIS 22,000 per year for Netanyahu's Caesarea home - NIS 2,500 per month, not including VAT, which are spent on a house that the prime minister only visits on rare weekends.
The document does not reveal when the state began paying for the expenses of Netanyahu's private residence, but it does show that the communications with Pollack Garden Center - the landscaping contractor for the PMO - goes back to Netanyahu's previous three terms as prime minister.
The relationship with Pollack has been extended seven times since 2008 in spite of criticism from the Finance Ministry.
Furthermore, the state pays NIS 72,000 per year for the external landscaping on the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem. For both the internal and external gardening for the PMO, the state pays out NIS 225,800 each year.
The expenses are significantly lower at other PMO offices. For the office on Kaplan St. in Tel Aviv, the state pays NIS 2,148 per year, while another Tel Aviv office spends NIS 3,930 on gardening annually.
The Government Press Office - which falls under the purview of the PMO - spends NIS 10,800 per year on landscaping, while the Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women spends only NIS 1,084 each year.
According to Movement for Freedom on Information reports on the PM's expenses, the PMO not only contracts with a landscaping firm but also employs a gardener and a landscaping consultant, which has been working for the PMO since 2011.
The consultant, Yael Kombor, also works for the Pollack Garden Center. In 2014, the contract with the consultant was worth NIS 90,000 per year for 30 work hours per month.
The PMO responded: "According to the directive on a serving prime minister's participation in expenses which was based on a decision by the Knesset's Finance Committee, the state pays for the landscaping expenses of all PMO sites, including the PM's residence in Caesarea. For the private residence on Gaza Street, only security expenses are paid."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 8, 2015
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