The full cabinet today unanimously approved an increase in the number of ministers. Tomorrow a bill will be brought before the Knesset, cancelling the law introduced in the last Knesset restricting the number of cabinet ministers to 18. The Ministry of Finance is not happy with the measure. Ministry of Finance budget director Amir Levy today sent a letter to government legal advisor Avichai Mandelblit stating, "Our view is that in order to streamline government business, the number of government ministries should be reduced."
Levy took no explicit stand on increasing the number of ministers, but wrote, "If a change is made in the number of ministers and deputy ministers beyond what is stipulated by law, the cost will be NIS 2.8-3.9 million per minister (NIS 11.2-15.6 million over a full government term) and NIS 1.5 million per deputy minister (NIS 6 million over a full government term).
With respect to the number of government ministries, Levy wrote, "Staff work done in the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Finance shows that increasing the number of existing government ministries in Israel is more significant than the number of ministers."
Levy added, "The number of ministers in Israel is 27, compared with only 14 in OECD countries with an efficient public sector. One of the reasons why a large number of ministries detracts from efficiency in the public sector is the fact that in a typical ministry, 35-40% of the ministry personnel consists of headquarters and general personnel, which does not necessarily lead to more services for people." Levi went on to write, "More government ministries means more regulation, and in certain cases, has a negative impact on economic activity."
In addition to the number of ministries, the coalition agreements signed by Likud with the other coalition factions state, "As part of the effort to bolster governability, a proposal to increase the number of political appointees in government ministries will be considered for the purpose of improving the ministries' work. In the context of this proposal, jobs such as deputy directors general and their equivalents will be considered political appointees."
The agreements specifically state that the coalition factions will support such a bill if agreement on its formulation is reached.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 10, 2015
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