Severe report "Barak's party received illicit donations, Balad organized a summer camp with party funds" | Israel today

The State Comptroller, Matanyahu Engelman, this morning published a report on the parties' current expenses and incomes 21 and 22. In addition, he fined them for refusing funding.

Ehud Barak's party forfeited guarantees and thus received illicit donations, Boogie Ya'alon's party used illicit funds, Balad held summer camps for children from the party's funds, "Hosen LeIsrael" incurred unreasonable expenses in the case of hiring a private investigator to find a "mole" in the party. The Likud dyad, and are there any paid bots? The comptroller claims yes, the parties claim no.

There are quite a few parties in the report that have exceeded the spending ceiling, "Paul" that the parties have been doing for many years and are punished for refusing funding. At the same time, there are also some notable stories about excessive spending. The State Comptroller fined them NIS 200,000 for refusing to donate.

Another familiar story is around the 2019 election campaign which was particularly tumultuous in the cooperation between the parties of Bnei Gantz and Yair Lapid, when at one point even a private investigator was hired to find a "mole" in the party who leaked information to the media.

The comptroller claimed that the faction did not have sufficient references to establish the reasonableness of the expenses reported in respect of information security and states the denial of funding in the amount of NIS 50,000.

The Balad party, which has previously starred in the issue of children's camps funded by the party's budget, appears again in the current report with the same claim.

The comptroller stated that the summer camp subsidy entails a direct financial benefit for the families of the participants and requires the party to establish clear procedures in this matter.

Boogie Ya'alon's party also stars in the report. It turns out that allowed donations that the party received before running for Knesset were later used by it for political bans in a prohibited manner. The provisions of section 24A (d) of the Parties Law and were used to finance his expenses that exceeded his income during that period.

The comptroller also attacked the "Likud Diad" events held in recent years, an event that has already received criticism from previous state critics.

According to the comptroller, "there are many characteristics that indicate a direct and clear connection between these events and the faction and their contribution to the advancement of the faction's affairs, and therefore the faction received a contribution that does not meet the limits set by law."

According to the comptroller, "the event served as a platform for the factions' ministers and Knesset members and was also given extensive media coverage in major media outlets - and therefore included a donation to the faction, and as a result the faction's income was not within the statutory limits for receiving donations." 50,000 NIS.

The Comptroller adds a general statement on the issues of the parties' income from donations and said that "the income of all the factions from donations amounted to a total of NIS 12.4 million and they constitute only about 2% of the total income of the factions, about NIS 509 million. "Involved in receiving donations, it is proposed that the legislature examine alternative funding mechanisms for fundraising, taking into account the distinction between parties represented in the Knesset and parties that are not represented in the Knesset."

Another significant issue has to do with the "bots" that roam the web.

The comptroller claimed that there were indications that sponsored propaganda activity had been carried out for factions through the acquisition of Facebook and Twitter accounts as well as through the activation of fictitious accounts that dealt with the promotion and reverberation of similar or identical propaganda messages.

According to the comptroller, the findings of the study were brought to the attention of the factions and lists, and all of them claimed that they did not purchase party promoter accounts and did not operate fictitious profiles for a fee.

The comptroller asks the legislature to regulate the issue.

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