Legal Advisor Declares Finance Committee Votes Invalid Over Procedural Violations

Shlomit Erlich, the legal advisor to the Knesset Finance Committee, sent a sharp letter on Tuesday to the committee chairman, MK Hanoch Milwitsky, accusing him of conducting an illegal session the previous evening. The session discussed three budgetary requests, but Erlich claimed the votes taken during the meeting were invalid due to multiple procedural breaches.

Erlich detailed that the requests were submitted late, with one sent by the Finance Ministry at 11 PM the night before, violating the rule requiring submissions two days in advance. She also noted the absence of required legal opinions, government decisions, budget history, and program details for the requests. Despite these deficiencies, Milwitsky allowed the requests to be published and voted on without proper legal review or the required waiting period.

One request involved nearly 971 million shekels from local authorities' surplus funds, which Erlich had flagged on May 27 as legally flawed due to budget overruns. Another request concerned budget overruns in two programs totaling 1.4 million shekels, also published without legal vetting or necessary information. Erlich described how Milwitsky initially told committee members he would not bring the requests to a vote but reversed course, prompting opposition MKs to walk out in protest.

Erlich emphasized that these repeated violations undermine MKs’ ability to properly scrutinize budget transfers and the legal advisor’s capacity to provide sound guidance. She stressed the importance of adhering to proper procedures, especially at the end of the current Knesset term.

The budget transfers approved included 235 million shekels moved from the Immigration and Absorption Ministry and interest payments to the Housing Ministry for ongoing development and immigrant housing management. Other transfers included 155 million shekels for Ashkelon city rehabilitation, 29 million shekels for coalition support to local immigrant authorities, 2.2 billion shekels for environmental protection activities, and smaller reallocations within the Health, Justice, Energy, and other ministries.