Following efforts by Betzedek, the Education Ministry's Chief
Accountant retracted his directive to require many
institutions to convert their entire accounting system back
to last year's system to fit it to the General Accountant's
new demands.
Recently, Education Ministry General Accountant Mr. Motti
Maroz issued a letter demanding that directors of Torah
institutions that receive support from funds earmarked for
boosting Jewish studies manage their entire accounting system
in a special way due to their receipt of those funds. The
General Accountant also demanded that every institution
update their accounting records retroactively, starting at
the beginning of 5765.
Betzedek workers consulted with accounting experts who
confirmed that this demand was expensive, unreasonable and
imposes an undesirable and disproportionate cost burden.
Opinions were also voiced regarding the legality of a
directive to alter accounting books that have already been
closed.
In a letter to Mr. Maroz and the General Accounting staff,
Betzedek demanded that the directive be rescinded.
The very existence of a directive requiring the institutions
to distinguish between the different funding already imposes
a serious burden on the institutions in the future, but since
it is being uniformly applied to all institutions, including
non-chareidi institutions, it is difficult to combat,
especially under current public suspicions about the activity
of non-government organizations.
Following Betzedek's demand and based on instructions from
the General Accountant, the Accountant decided to retract his
recent directive. And recently, Torah-based institutions
received an updated letter from the Education Ministry's
General Accountant saying that the demand would apply as of
the beginning of 5766 rather than the beginning of 5765 as
previously stated.
