This week the Knesset State Control Committee convened to discuss the State Comptroller's reports on the status of East Jerusalem and the deficit crisis in the National Insurance Institute.
The discussion which dealt with East Jerusalem (20.2) was opened by the Director of the Defense Forces Audit Division, Eitan Dahan, who presented the Comptroller's report from 2018 which found defects in manning the checkpoints with civilians and in training the security guards. Dahan added that there are breaches in the security barrier on the seam outline in the Jerusalem area, and that the authorities are not fulfilling their role in the areas of education and welfare.
Eyal Sonnenfeld, Department Director in the Defense Forces Audit Division, said that "Two breaches remain along the seam outline in the Jerusalem envelope area, and they still pose a tangible risk. One of the breaches led to the murder of Ori Ansbacher Z"L".
Amos Olsewer, Deputy Department Director in the Government Ministries and Institutions Audit Division, presented the figures which arose from the audit and related in his speech to the defects in the matter of the National Insurance Institute's treatment of the applications to determine the residency status of East Jerusalem Arabs: "It was found that almost half of the appeals against the National Insurance's decisions by residents of East Jerusalem were accepted by the court".
Eilam Banu, Deputy Department Director in the Social and Welfare Audit Division, related to the matter of the social services to the Arab society in East Jerusalem and said that approximately 2,000 classrooms were lacking in East Jerusalem, and that the Jerusalem Municipality does not have sufficient data regarding children who are not enrolled in any educational establishment.
Two days after the discussion on East Jerusalem, the Committee reconvened (22.2) in order to discuss the financial strength of the National Insurance Institute, as reflected in three reports published by the State Comptroller in 2015, 2016 and 2021.
Tzachi Saad, Director of the Economics and National Infrastructures Audit Division, noted in the discussion that "In the coming years the National Insurance is expected to deal with substantive demographic changes, including the rapid ageing of the population which will lead to a significant increase in the proportion of the elderly population in Israel". According to figures from 2021, in another four years the payments which the National Insurance Institute will need to make to transfer to the insured persons are expected to be higher than what it receives - and in 2044 the National Insurance Institute fund is expected to be emptied.
The State Comptroller's reports warned that in the coming years the interest payments and fund repayments will not be able to be registered and serve as part of the State revenue and the Ministry of Finance will be compelled to transfer money to the Institute. "The lack of thorough treatment of the actuarial deficit of the National Insurance is liable to stem the increase in the National Insurance fund within a few years, to empty the fund about twenty years thereafter, adversely affect the benefits payments to the citizens and place their social insurance in jeopardy in the future", stressed Saad.