Knesset Legal Advisor Accuses Treasury of Budgetary Bullying Against Government Ministries
The Knesset's legal advisor, Attorney Shagit Afik, has accused the Israeli Ministry of Finance of bullying government ministries by withholding budgets to pressure them into seeking retroactive approval from the Finance Committee. Afik highlighted that the Treasury stopped funds allocated to the Prime Minister's Office to coerce it into requesting committee approval for budget transfers that had already been made before the committee's consent. She stated that such retroactive approvals, obtained after ministries pressured Knesset members, are illegal.
In a letter sent on May 18, 2026, to the Treasury's legal advisor, Attorney Dudi Kopel, Afik referred to a budget transfer involving the Prime Minister's Office. She noted that the Finance Committee was informed the funds had already been disbursed prior to the committee's approval request, constituting a breach of the approved budget. Consequently, the legal advisor to the Finance Committee, Shlomit Erlich, informed Kopel that since the transfer was already executed, she intended to notify committee members that the transfer was legally flawed and should not be discussed or approved.
Afik revealed that following this, the Treasury's Budget Department began punishing the ministry by freezing all its remaining budgets to force it to seek committee approval retroactively. She described this as "illegal bullying" that disrupts government operations and compels repeated pressure on the committee to approve unlawful retroactive budget transfers. The amount involved in the questioned transfer was significantly smaller than the total budget frozen by the Treasury.
Afik also noted that she had requested data on budget transfers made before Finance Committee approval in a letter dated May 12, 2026, but had yet to receive a response. The article also references a related case from late 2025, when the Finance Committee approved a transfer of approximately 1.1 billion shekels to ultra-Orthodox institutions. After petitions to the Supreme Court, including from the Yesh Atid and Hadash parties, a temporary injunction froze the funds. However, it was revealed that about 1 billion shekels had already been transferred before committee approval. The Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot implement a deficit budget plan by transferring funds before Finance Committee approval, even if it intends to seek approval afterward.
