Yesh Atid held out on its demands to cut the size of the government and despite giving in near the end on its maximum number of 18 ministers, the streamlined cabinet of 23 ministers is a considerable cut from the previous administration and its 31 cabinet posts. If the new government survives its 4.5 year term, it will cost the nation 590 million NIS instead of 760 million NIS, a savings of 170 million NIS due to having fewer ministers.
The annual cost of a cabinet minister including salary, office, vehicle, drivers, assistants and advisors is estimated at 2.8 million NIS. The cost of a deputy minister is 2.2 million NIS. The cost of security for a minister, which is not included in the above sum, is 2 million NIS annually.
It should also be pointed out that while there are fewer ministers, there are not fewer offices. That means that instead of additional ministers there are cabinet ministers in this administration overseeing a number of national government offices. Therefore, while the cost of the minister is saved, the cost of the office is not eliminated.
Maariv reports that the savings, 170 million NIS, is a respectable sum, sufficient to finance 100 classrooms to schools or 20 units to a hospital, or towards building 2,000 apartments for the homeless.
Professor Yaron Zilka, a former chief actuary in the treasury feels the number of cabinet ministers mustn’t exceed 18 along with three deputy ministers. Zilka applauds the significant reduction in the number of ministers, but feels it is only a step in the right direction and more needs to be done to cut the size of the cabinet. He feels the amount of money that would be saved is most significant but no less important, less ministers will lead to improved productivity and efficiency.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
An excellent begining for this new government. May am yisrael see much bracha from it.
Yigal, sorry to disappoint you but a government run by those secularists whose father’s are not Jewish or whose wife is not religious and are out to destroy Torah and Yiddishkeit will not have much bracha nor siyata dishmaya.
Rabbi Shneur Kotler, Rosh Yeshiva of Beis Medrash Govoha of Lakewood (1918-1982)
Rabbi Shneur Kotler said, “People call the Satmar Rav’s ideas a shitah, but it is not. He proves in Vayoel Moshe that this is what Shas and poskim, Rishonim and Acharonim all held. What he holds is what all gedolei Yisroel once held. On the contrary, our Agudah shitah is a new shitah: that in today’s environment, we have to do an aveirah lishmah and salvage whatever we can, choose the lesser of two evils and so on. But the Satmar Rav’s shitah is the shitah of Shas and poskim, the age-old Jewish way.