MK Rabbi Moshe Gafni has been working to remove bureaucratic
obstacles preventing Torah institutions from receiving
funding. The bureaucratic snares stem from tightened
Education Ministry and NGO Registrar criteria for receiving
Proper Management Certificates and monthly funding
transfers.
Rabbi Gafni recently spoke with Constitution Committee
Chairman MK Menachem Ben Shushan and sent a letter to Justice
Minister Chaim Ramon and spoke with him personally.
Following conversations with NGO Registrar Atty. Yaron Keidar
and his deputy Avital Schreiber, as well as with ranking
Education Ministry officials, funding will resume at yeshivas
which suffered extraordinary financial strain.
The funds are being withheld due to technical problems. A
large kollel in Bnei Brak, for instance, has had its funding
withheld because it sent documents to the NGO Registrar by
fax rather by mail or with a courier. As a result the kollel
did not receive a Proper Management Certificate and Education
Ministry funding was delayed.
Agudas Yisroel's kindergarten network also had its Proper
Management Certificate withheld because it has yet to submit
a recovery plan. It has actually prepared a plan and
submitted it to the government and is currently awaiting
government approval, so the delay is not its fault.
Following Rabbi Gafni's efforts both institutions, along with
several others, recently received Proper Management
Certificates and their funding was reinstated.
Rabbi Gafni says that the NGO Registrar's conduct toward
chareidi educational and Torah institutions over
insignificant procedural mishaps causes considerable damage.
If accountants hired to check the NGOs discover minor faults,
the same accountant is sent to conduct an in-depth audit and
supervision over an extended period of time. Rabbi Gafni told
the Justice Minister that this arrangement clearly involves a
serious conflict of interests since an accountant who finds
minor faults winds up receiving much more work.
