The ethics committee convened on Wednesday to discuss reports that although he serves as a Knesset member, Nissim Vaturi works as a contractor and in fact accepted his version that he could have continued his work as a contractor for a limited time.
In a letter published by the committee, the committee says that "according to section 13 of the Immunity Law, the Rights and Obligations of Knesset Members sets restrictions on additional occupations of Knesset members and prohibits engaging in additional wages. The law does set a "transition period" of six months for new Knesset members, and in addition the ethics rules state that the MK must terminate as soon as possible any previous occupation he had and that a Knesset member is forbidden to engage in it, he is not entitled to undertake to act in a new matter within the framework of the previous occupation, but only to terminate dealing with existing matters within the framework of that occupation."
Nissim Vaturi, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
In addition, it was written that the customary transition period is supposed to be short, and that there are also significant restrictions and limitations, since as a rule, Knesset members are not allowed to work in another job while in office. Vaturi's term began on 15.11.22. Vaturi spoke with the Attorney General and approached the committee at the end of March to obtain approval for further employment. The committee claims that "in your application you wrote that prior to entering the Knesset you were engaged in project management as a registered contractor, with the last project left to work on was a construction project in Tel Aviv as part of TAMA 38 work. You also wrote that when you entered the Knesset, you informed entrepreneurs that you had to terminate your contract with them within six months, and that since you entered the Knesset you have not received compensation for your work, and you informed the relevant parties that you were waiving in advance the receipt of salary for this period. You added that your remaining in this occupation was in order to prevent the expected damage to the project. If you leave at such short notice."
The letter also stated that the committee members noted that in accordance with the law and the rules of ethics, a member of Knesset may engage in additional occupation during the transition period, subject to reservations. The committee does not customarily issue past-looking approvals and specific instructions may not be given retroactively according to the circumstances and occupation. As the members of the Committee noted in the future, it is proposed that on ethical questions you turn to the Ethics Committee for the purpose of obtaining forward-looking legal advice.
Courtesy of Keshet 12
This is not the first time that MK Vaturi has benefited from the Ethics Committee's decision in the past week. As first reported by Israel Hayom, last Monday members of the ethics committee approved the organization of Nissim Vaturi's sailing event. Two weeks ago, Vaturi's picture appeared on an ad urging Likud members to join him on a cruise in September. On June 6, the ethics committee discussed the issue, and now the answer has come – the ethics committee approved the cruise, but imposed a number of warnings and restrictions on Vaturi.
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