Treasury rejects defense establishment claims: "Reflects negligent management regarding the budget"

The Ministry of Finance is furious following the harsh accusations by the top brass of the Ministry of Defense that the army has reached a situation "on the edge of the abyss." A senior official in the Ministry of Finance said this evening (Sunday) that the distance from the abyss is vast, and that according to the defense establishment's demands, "the defense budget could reach almost a third of the entire state budget. A situation unprecedented in the world."

Earlier today, the defense establishment warned that "during a prolonged multi-front war, the Budget Department in the Treasury is blocking the transfer of the 15 billion shekels that had already been agreed upon." After Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir warned last week that the IDF is dealing with "empty coffers," senior officials in the defense establishment warned that there is currently a severe shortage of Humvees and ammunition. Those same officials even noted that huge deals with the Americans, such as the Apache attack helicopter deal, have not been executed.

The Ministry of Finance is particularly angry at the Ministry of Defense because the transfer of the 15 billion shekels was not stopped by them, but was submitted to the Knesset Finance Committee about a month ago and has been "sitting there" ever since. According to the Treasury heads, "We transferred the budget to the Knesset on August 2, and despite this, the defense establishment prefers to attack us even though it knows it is not with us. We are acting exactly according to the National Security Council's summaries. It is unparalleled audacity to say that it is stuck in the Treasury."

The heads of the Ministry of Finance further said with anger that "everyone knows that our ministry is fully committed to the military effort, and has financed all the army's operations on all fronts with hundreds of billions, in accordance with the needs of the defense establishment, and continues to do so with tremendous effort while continuing to worry about raising debt, and about the functioning of the economy and the market." In the Budget Department, they emphasized that the defense budget has almost tripled in two years. It was further stated that all the amounts set in the state budget as well as additional budget summaries are being fulfilled and transferred in full by the Ministry of Finance.

According to the Treasury people, "There is no summary that the Ministry of Finance has not met - above and beyond the original budget approved in the Knesset." A senior official said: "The heads of the defense establishment should be attentive to the voices calling on them to treat the billions of shekels annually with gravity, so that they are used for the state's security efficiently and with responsible management." By this, the Treasury hinted at what they call "the waste and benefits that are distributed without sufficient transparency."

Senior officials in the Ministry of Finance added: "Perhaps their accusation that the funds are stuck in the Treasury stems from a lack of understanding and familiarity with the process of transferring funds and the need to approve it in the Knesset. This reflects exactly the negligent management of the defense establishment regarding the budget. They are behaving with ingratitude. For three years we have met every budgetary demand of the army, standing at attention and financing this entire expensive war, including budgets that are beyond the amount set by the Knesset in the state budget. We are raising debt in the world in large volumes, under significant challenges. All to flow this money directly to the defense establishment. Instead of acknowledging this, they treat us as an 'additional front' just because we point out failures and waste, and put a spotlight on the fact that they are managing an independent budget contrary to the law."

Another senior official in the Treasury noted: "It was expected that they would treat these billions with sacred awe. It was expected that they would understand that this budget comes from budgets for patients in hospitals, from the medicine basket, from money for populations that are struggling, from paving roads and building infrastructure, but in return for providing the full budgets on our part at the expense of services to the public or reducing taxes and economic growth, they are spreading spins into the air intended to frighten the public from whom they demand more and more money." He further said: "In this way, if the budgetary conduct of the defense establishment does not change and they demand more and more billions, the economy and the market will no longer be able to hold it, and perhaps in a few years we will face a large-scale confrontation and this time there will really be nowhere to bring money for it."