Israel Ministry of Transport Exposes Public Bus Operator Data Manipulation
The Israeli Ministry of Transport revealed that public transport operators manipulated inspection data to evade fines. Civil society groups called for an immediate overhaul of the tender system.
Public transport companies in Israel manage huge budgets of billions of shekels from state funds, but the Ministry of Transport claims that field supervision has turned into a numbers game. In a letter sent recently to the CEOs of the operating companies, the director of the National Public Transport Authority, Idan Moalem, presented findings exposing a flawed reporting method in the audit and validation systems. The apparent goal: to evade fines.
According to Moalem, the Ministry of Transport accumulated complaints from passengers, accompanied by field videos showing inspectors sampling the same passenger repeatedly. Following the complaints, the ministry conducted an in-depth investigation and audit of the data files transmitted by the companies. According to the Public Transport Authority, the inspection verified the complaints and revealed discrepancies in the samples.
Flawed Audit Methods
In the letter sent to the operators, Moalem described the findings discovered in the data: "Repeated cases of scanning the same card over and over within seconds by the same inspector in the same audit were identified, alongside consecutive checks of the same passenger by multiple inspectors with a minimal time gap." According to Moalem, this pattern "does not reflect actual audit activity, contradicts the purpose of supervision, and is inconsistent with the provisions of the agreement."
According to the letter, Moalem warned the companies against new oversight measures: "The ministry will begin conducting in-depth checks and ongoing computerized verification for all operator reports received in the systems." Alongside this, it was clarified that in any case of unreasonable time proximity, "the duplicate samples will be disqualified immediately and will not be recognized in the number of samples required to meet the targets."
Civil Society Response
The Public Transport Forum of civil society organizations welcomed the move, but emphasized that this is a symptom of a much broader problem. "We welcome the Ministry of Transport for starting to take action against the operating companies and in enforcement and supervision processes," it was stated. "It is known that there are very large gaps between the passenger experience in the field and the reports reaching the Ministry of Transport."
"These things prove once again that the current tender system has not proven itself in passenger service and is in need of an urgent and immediate change."
According to industry sources, the background to this conduct lies in the tender system and public transport operation agreements. In these tenders, the state sets rigid targets for private companies regarding audit volumes and passenger sampling in each cluster. Failure to meet these quotas leads to administrative fines and non-recognition of tests for payment purposes.
Need for Structural Reform
The Public Transport Forum proposed a detailed plan to change the system, similar to models in Europe. According to the proposal, the remuneration structure should be changed so that instead of most of it being derived from the number of kilometers, at least half of the score would be given for service quality, actual passenger pickup, satisfaction surveys, and transparent control metrics.
