Following prolonged discussions between Degel HaTorah
Secretary MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni and ranking Finance Ministry
officials during recent months, a decision was reached to
increase funding support for yeshivas by 16 percent during
November and December. In addition the Team Funds, which the
State pledged to pay years ago, were finally transferred.
During the past few months of negotiations with Finance
Ministry and Education Ministry figures Rabbi Gafni asked for
an increase in the funding rate for yeshivas, since large
surpluses remain in the yeshiva segment of the budget.
Education Minister Livnat also sent a letter to ranking
Finance Minister officials and officials at her ministry,
requesting an increase in funding for yeshivas.
During a meeting Rabbi Gafni held with Finance Ministry
Budget Commissioner Kobi Haber and Deputy Commissioner Y.
Andoran on Monday, an agreement was reached to increase the
rate of support funding for Torah institutions by 16 percent
in November and December of 2004 despite the lower rate set
several months ago.
In addition Rabbi Gafni made an arrangement with ranking
figures in the Finance Ministry Budget Department to channel
the surplus funds left in the budget for Torah institutions
for 2004—some NIS 50 million ($11 million)—to
payments or commitments to pay the Team Funds, which were
delayed for so long that Betzedek filed a petition with the
High Court.
The yeshiva funding, including the 16 percent increase, was
transferred to the yeshiva bank accounts on Monday.
The Team Funds Scandal
This regrettable and complicated stealing-from-the-poor
scandal began during Succos 5760 (1999) — five years
ago — when the now defunct Religious Affairs Ministry
hired a computer consulting company called Team to
computerize the entire data system it used to process
enrollment at yeshivas and other Torah institutions.
When computerized data started to flow into the ministry, the
system crashed, causing numerous errors and flaws in the data
during the initial months. As a result, from that month on,
the ministry did not transfer funding to a considerable
portion of yeshivas and other institutions, or else
transferred only a portion of the full sum. These mishaps
continued for at least six months. A total of approximately
NIS 50 million ($11 million) went unpaid and came to be known
to all those who knew about the problem as the Team Funds.
When the yeshivas and other Torah institutions became aware
of the problem, they began a long dialogue with the Religious
Affairs Ministry and later with the Education Ministry via
the Forum of Yeshiva Principals and chareidi MKs. Time and
again they alerted ministry officials and other involved
figures to the problem. The issue even reached the Knesset
plenum, Knesset committees, the State Comptroller and the
Attorney General.
The Education and Finance Ministries accepted responsibility
for the problem, periodically reassuring the institutions
that the matter would be taken care of and that soon the
funds would be transferred based on the proper criteria. The
Religious Affairs Ministry first hired an accounting firm to
check the institutions' reports. Later the Finance Ministry
hired a second accounting firm to review all of the
material.
On various occasions throughout this period all of the
yeshivas and institutions were repeatedly required to submit
reports and declarations on the amounts they were due to
receive. The inquiries were finally completed only less than
one year ago, at which time the funds could not be
transferred because the Religious Affairs Ministry was
beginning to be dismantled and most of its operations were in
the process of being transferred to the Education Ministry.
Therefore it was agreed with the Finance Ministry's General
Accountant that the funds would be transferred to the
yeshivas as part of the 2004 budget.
Four months ago, after all of the budget funds had been
transferred, it became apparent that the State still had not
released the funds. At that point, the yeshiva managers, MKs
and public figures contacted Attorney Rabbi Mordechai Green,
the director of Betzedek, asking him to take action.
Following consultations with gedolei Yisroel, Betzedek
filed a High Court petition extending over 30 pages with
numerous appended documents. The petition lays forth all of
the promises made by Religious Affairs Ministry officials,
starting with the Minister himself through the Director of
the Yeshivas Section and the Director-General, that the
yeshivas would receive the money withheld from them due only
to computer error.
The petition described in detail the many superfluous demands
made by Finance Ministry officials in charge of handling
payment of the back funds: on at least four occasions yeshiva
managers had to submit reports on the number and type of
talmidim enrolled and on three occasions roshei
kollelim had to sign declarations. It also points out
that the data verification process extended over a period of
four years!
In the petition, Attorney Green lodged a series of legal and
other claims to justify the High Court's intervention in the
affair. The government has an obligation to carry out pledges
made by officials authorized to speak in the name of the
State (e.g. the Religious Affairs Minister and Director-
General and the General Accountant). Institution heads took
these promises seriously, incurring heavy debts as a
result.
The petition claimed that the State should pay back the money
it has been withholding unjustly since 1999, including an
adjustment for the cost-of-living increases in the course of
those years.
"The State appears to be operating on the bases of external
considerations in improper administration arrangements and
apparently with no legal basis in a manner that harms its
citizens' fundamental rights," read the petition. "This
phenomenon is far graver when it involves nonprofit
organizations, i.e. the yeshivas."
Attorney Green quoted a legal opinion Attorney General Mani
Mazuz submitted to the Finance Ministry and a report released
by State Comptroller Judge Eliezer Goldberg, both of which
determined that the State must pay the Team funds regardless
of the fact the fiscal year in question has already
passed.
The petition also pointed to serious discrimination: some
institutions received the funding because the computerized
system recorded their data correctly and other institutions
(not chareidi in most cases) received funding later, after
filing High Court appeals and settling out of court. The
details of the agreements between the government and these
institutions was kept from the public's view because most of
these rulings say only that the two sides reached an
agreement and the petitioner withdrew the petition.
The petition also suggested that these discriminatory
arrangements in effect brought in "special allocations"
through the back door, and in any case the failure to
transfer the Team funds to the eligible institutions
represents a serious deviation from reasonable practice and
indicates a lack of integrity and fairness on the part of
government officials.
Betzedek, which has been recognized in previous cases as a
public petitioner, asked the High Court to instruct the
Ministries of Education and Finance to transfer the Team
funds to all of the institutions, based on the detailed lists
prepared by government accountants. The organization
explained to the High Court that it chose to file the various
claims as a single petition to avoid the necessity for every
institution to file a petition individually, which would have
tied up the court and cost the yeshivas, large sums in legal
fees after having already suffered as a result of the
prolonged delay.
Now, the issue was finally settled by a political deal.
