Economy Minister Nir Barkat's announcement about promoting a move to remove the Commissioner for Competition, Attorney Michal Cohen, raises serious concerns about harming the independence of the Competition Authority.
This move joins other moves by the government that harm the public service and the ability to provide basic services to the country's residents.
Instead of the public service working for the benefit of the public as a whole, the government tries to turn it into a tool in the hands of ministers to promote their own narrow interests and the promotion of those close to them.
The current attempt joins the termination of the work of the Director of the Government Companies Authority, the Shevast Commissioner, the removal of a superintendent, the attempt to remove the Chairman of the Post Office Board of Directors, Michal Vakanin, and perhaps, God forbid, a future attempt to remove the legal advisor to the government.
The damage to the independence of the competition authority is serious, because it opens the door to introducing political considerations into the authority's decisions.
These considerations are likely to encourage corruption, and will certainly not help lower the cost of living.
The law allows the competition authority to demand confidential data from commercial entities, open criminal investigations, and even file criminal charges.
Appointees "on behalf of" may make decisions against certain companies or promote the affairs of others for non-business reasons, and in any case, the authority's decisions will always be suspect of having been made for extraneous reasons.
Fear of injury to independence.
Advocate Michal Cohen, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
Moreover, large companies will have an incentive to send workers to the center of the ruling party or to donate money to the Minister of Economy or members of Knesset close to him, in order to encourage him to put pressure on the superior, to help the company or to harass its rivals.
The situation in Poland and Hungary, two countries where the ruling party also significantly weakened the public service, shows that this is not a false fear.
In Hungary, a commissioner was appointed with no relevant experience in the field of competition.
President Viktor Orban brought to an end an investigation by the Hungarian Competition Authority regarding a cartel in the field of agriculture and limited the authority's ability to examine agreements in the field of agriculture, all for personal reasons.
When the competition authority is not independent, political parties can interfere in its professional considerations for the purpose of promoting associates or for the purpose of harassment.
When the public service is not independent, outstanding employees retire from it, because professional advancement is based on connections and not on skills.
Thus, the public service attracts mainly "jasmens", and the quality of the service and the professionalism of its employees deteriorates.
Therefore, Minister Barkat's attempt to oust Attorney Michal Cohen must be strongly opposed. An independent and professional public service is essential for the well-being of the residents of Israel and necessary in this case for all of us, and it is ten times more important than Minister Barkat's narrow interests.
Prof. Itai Ater is a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute, a researcher at Tel Aviv University and head of the Economists for Democracy Forum; Prof. Yossi Spiegel is a researcher at Tel Aviv University and president of the Israel Economic Association
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