During the five weeks in which State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman, together with senior staff from his office, toured the majority of the Confrontation Line localities in the north and south, held meetings with residents and authority heads, visited the evacuees from the Gaza Envelope, from the north and south in hotels in Eilat, Jerusalem, Tiberias, the Dead Sea, Shefayim, the Jordan Valley and Ma'ale HaHamisha, the Comptroller and his office's staff were exposed to the many defects in the government's activity from the civil and home front aspects.
Now, he has raised the variety of defects in one document and has called upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding the rectification of the many defects that had been revealed. The defects were also presented this morning to CEOPRO, which is headed by the Director General of the Prime Minister's Office.
The defects raised by the Comptroller concern the following issues: the aid program for the residents of the Confrontation Line, emergency government funding for civil offices, providing information and explanations to the public about government activities, evacuees staying in hotels, education, mental health, emergency health services – including the failure to evacuate under fire when many injured people bled to death while vainly crying out for help, a severe shortage of armored ambulances, discrepancies in protection in hospitals in the north and south, the severe problem in the rapid response teams, protection and bomb shelters, and more.
"A month has passed since the beginning of the war, the entire nation of Israel has been recruited to the front and the home front in order to vanquish the enemy", Comptroller Englman stressed. "Alongside the military effort, managed by the War Cabinet and the State Security Cabinet, many failures and discrepancies are evident in the government's handling of the home front. Even when some of the government ministers and the ministries under their charge have begun the intensive activity required at this time".
"The government preparedness for emergency was supposed to be comprehensive, detailed, well-rehearsed and ready for operation. This is the expected standard, in reference to which all the discrepancies and failures evident in the functioning of the civil systems in the first month of the war must be examined. This is also the standard expected from a country whose preparation for an emergency is a necessary and fundamental step in its response to its complex security challenges. The first month of the emergency period should not be characterized by a gradual and slow process of governmental organization, but in the rapid activation of ready-made plans and arrangements.
The government ministers must continue to act, each one in his own field, to optimize the handling of the home front at this time; the wonderful spirit of volunteering that exists among us is of decisive importance and contributes to the national unity, but alongside this it clarifies the need for an efficient and quick response from the governmental system".
According to the Comptroller, "The discrepancies and issues set out in this document do not fall within the definition of an audit report and they are not based upon the orderly methodological procedure routinely implemented in audit work. However, during this exceptional period of emergency, and when the risks and challenges are still knocking on our door, I think that the same insights which were raised in direct interaction with hundreds of officials and civilians and the direct observation of the reality on the ground, in practice, fall within the definition of a situation report of significant weight."
The Comptroller emphasized that this is only the beginning of the audit procedure and affirmed that "As I said in an announcement on my behalf during the course of my visit to Sderot in the first week after the outbreak of the war, the Office of the State Comptroller will conduct a comprehensive and fundamental audit on a date to be set, to examine the political and security failures which allowed the Hamas terrorists to cruelly massacre and harm about 1,400 Israeli citizens and security forces and abduct 239 children, elderly people, men and women who are now being held in the Gaza Strip and our hearts go out to them and their families.
The audit will examine the actions of all levels – the political level, the military level, and the civil level, on the timelines during the period preceding the outbreak of the dastardly attack, during the days of the attack, and the actions taken following it. Nevertheless, I have made it clear that at the present time it is our duty to support the IDF and the security forces, so that they will be occupied with one thing and one thing only – the victory over our enemy, as this is an existential war in our country. This being the case, at the present time the state audit is focusing on an examination and follow-up of the provision of a response by the state authorities for the home front.
The state audit will leave no stone unturned in order to to get to the truth and point to the responsibility of the parties concerned from all levels. The state audit's comprehensive activity will commence on the date I set. Insofar as an investigative committee is established, we shall examine the borders of the sphere between the state audit areas of activity and the investigative committee's areas of responsibility".
According to the Comptroller, "From a survey of the various defects and discrepancies set out in detail below, it transpires that the common denominator concerning the absolute majority of them is the lack of preparedness for emergency, as well as the discrepancies in the actual implementation. It should be noted that some of the defects had been raised in State Comptroller reports in the past, for example in the areas of protection, shelter, and evacuation of the population, in the treatment of anxiety victims during an emergency, in education and distance learning, and more.”