In addition, he met with Tiberias Mayor Boaz Yosef and his staff and with Emek HaYarden Regional Council Mayor Idan Greenbaum and his staff, in order to deal with urgent gaps vis-à-vis government ministers and ministries, to provide individual support to residents via the Ombudsman's Office and to gather materials from the field in preparation for a comprehensive and incisive audit that will be conducted at the end of the war.
The comptroller listened to evacuees' claims, especially regarding the economic uncertainty given the absence of an economic plan for the home front, the lack of educational frameworks for youth and the immediate mental health needs that are not being addressed. Mayor Boaz Yosef described all of the municipality's actions at this time and the collaborations with the Ministries of Education and Welfare. In addition, he stated that as of last weekend, he had received a single budget authorization of only NIS 1.4 million from the Ministry of Housing for renovating shared shelters. However, he raised the issue of the lack of budgetary authorizations from the other government ministries for funding the municipality's activities for evacuees at this time, despite the fact that the municipality is hosting about 9,000 evacuees from northern and southern Israel.
The comptroller held the visit as part of the tours that he has been making since the outbreak of the war on the front lines in southern and northern Israel, in the Gaza envelope and meetings with evacuees at the various hotels.
State Comptroller Englman voiced incisive criticism of the debacles of the government's handling of critical civilian issues for Israel's residents, especially residents of the front lines and evacuees:
"The government is failing in its handling of the home front. The lack of an economic plan and the lack of a project director in the fourth week of the war, when hundreds of thousands of residents of communities from southern and northern Israel have been evacuated from their homes, is a significant failure and fiasco that no excuse can justify. The uncertainty harms the residents of southern and northern Israel. There is no place for power struggles at this time. The prime minister and the government ministers must urgently get into the thick of things and resolve the problems immediately."
Photo credit: Eli Sabati, spokesperson of the Municipality of Tiberias
Photo credit: Eli Sabati, spokesperson of the Municipality of Tiberias