· Read the Ombudsman - 50th Annual Report for 2023
A record number of complaints since the establishment of the Office of the Ombudsman:
During 2023, the Office of the Ombudsman at the Office of the State Comptroller received 22,356 letters of complaint about public bodies – an increase of 57% in the number of complaints since 2019. 43% of the complaints were justified or rectified. The Swords of Iron War: 55% of the complaints concerning the state of emergency were rectified. About one third of all the complaints in 2023 dealt with the service to the public – and one half of these were found to be justified. There was a sharp rise in complaints about the National Public Transport Authority. The complainants and other people influenced by the Office's decisions received approximately NIS 33 million.
State Comptroller and Ombudsman Matanyahu Englman:
"During the 'Swords of Iron' War, many failures and defects were found in how the government dealt with civilians. Representatives from the Office of the Ombudsman at the Office of the State Comptroller visited approximately 90 evacuees' centers and were able to assist the majority of the complainants. Immediately after the outbreak of the war, the Office began to operate a hotline at the service of the applicants and complainants. The Office's teams even visit the reserve soldiers' assembly areas, in order to allow them to file complaints to the Office speedily and easily. The Prime Minister and the relevant ministers must ascertain that a civilian war room provides an appropriate and effective response to all the applicants, and in particular those from the north".
The State Comptroller and Ombudsman, Matanyahu Englman, published today (24.6.24) the Ombudsman's Annual Report. According to the report, in 2023 22,356 letters of complaint were received at the Office of the Ombudsman, an increase of 7% compared with 2022. This is a record year in the number of the complaints received. From 2019 to 2023 there was an increase of 57% in the number of letters of complaint received at the Office.
43% of the complaints that the Office was competent to investigate during 2023 were found to be justified or were rectified (a rate close to that of 2022 – 44%).
31.4% of the complaints handled during 2023 dealt with the matter of the service to the public – and 52.6% were found to be justified. Due to the importance of the matter, the Office will publish a special report in 2024 on the matter of the quality of the service provided by the public bodies in the State of Israel.
The Office of the Ombudsman during the Swords of Iron War
Right from the start of the war, the Office of the Ombudsman understood that in view of its role, experience and ability to speedily and effectively reach all the relevant bodies in the public service, it was obliged to act immediately in order to assist as much as possible the population requiring assistance following the state of emergency. The Office decided not to wait for the inquiries to reach it, but to take initiated actions in order to speedily and effectively reach whoever required its assistance.
Accordingly, already on 12.10.23, five days after the outbreak of the war, the Office of the Ombudsman began to operate the "hotline". The hotline first operated 24 hours a day, six days a week, by telephone and by WhatsApp. Furthermore, the Office's employees began to visit the evacuees' centers all over the country, from Tiberias in the north to Eilat in the south, in order to enable the evacuees to access the updated information concerning their rights and assist them in real time. Until now, visits have been conducted at about 90 evacuees' centers all over the country. Since the beginning of 2024, the Office's teams have travelled to the reserve soldiers' assembly areas, in order to allow them to file a complaint to the Office speedily and easily.
On 19.12.2023 the State Comptroller and Ombudsman published a special report – "The Public's Complaints during the First Weeks of the 'Swords of Iron' War", pursuant to the provision of Section 46[b] of the State Comptroller Law, 5718-1958 [Consolidated Version]. The report surveys all the actions of the Office of the Ombudsman during the first six weeks of the war, and describes the complaints received by the Office that concerned the state of emergency and the Office's individual handling of a selection of such complaints. The complaints described in the report concerned various areas – discrepancies in protection, defects in rocket alerts, difficulties in obtaining a license to carry a firearm, difficulties in receiving health and education services, defects in receiving grants and compensation, etc.
From 7.10.23 to 31.12.23, the Office of the Ombudsman received 1,627 complaints connected to the Swords of Iron War. 55% of the complaints that the Office was competent to investigate and whose investigation had been completed had been rectified. 68% of the complaints in connection with the state of emergency were received via the hotline and the meetings with the evacuees all over the country.
These are the bodies concerning which the greatest number of complaints in matters connected to the state of emergency was received:
· The National Insurance Institute – 190
· Israel Tax Authority – 144
· The Municipality of Ashkelon – 124
· The Ministry of National Security – 90
· The Home Front Command (IDF) – 83
The complaints against the National Insurance Institute included mainly complaints concerning occupancy grants, unemployment benefit and payments to victims of hostile activities. The complaints against the Israel Tax Authority included mainly complaints concerning compensation grants. The complaints against the Municipality of Ashkelon focused mainly on the grants and handling of the evacuees. The complaints against the Ministry of National Security included mainly complaints concerning the licensing of firearms. The complaints against the Home Front Command included mainly complaints concerning protection (shelters and residential protected areas).
The Office of the Ombudsman received 603 complaints from evacuees concerning the state of emergency. This constitutes 37% of all the complaints received in this matter. The evacuees complained about the grants connected to the state of emergency, the evacuation of the population and the handling of the evacuees, the service to the public (call centers, handling of inquiries), compensation for the damages incurred on account of the war, allowances (payments to victims of hostile activities and unemployment benefit), health and mental health services. Thus, for example, following the Office's intervention, the family of a boy with special needs received an extra room in the hotel to which they had been evacuated (the detailed complaint is set out below). 59% of the complaints from evacuees that the Office of the Ombudsman was competent to investigate and whose investigation had been completed were rectified.
During 2023, complainants who wrote to the Office of the Ombudsman and others who had been affected by the Office's decisions, received an inclusive sum of approximately NIS 33.4 million.
Thus, for example, following the Office's intervention, a municipality struck out a sewage levy debt for a complainant and his neighbors in the sum of approximately NIS 1.67 million, since it had demurred in recovering the debt; maternity pay in the sum of approximately NIS 20,000 was paid to a complainant who had served in the reserves as a permanent soldier and who had been released from the reserves before the maternity leave; and a complainant and her son retroactively received differentials in the sum of NIS 38,830 for apartment rental assistance.
These are the ten bodies which received the greatest number of complaints during 2023:
· The Ministry of Transport and Road Safety – 2,081
· The National Insurance Institute – 1,528
· The Population and Immigration Authority – 1,021
· The Ministry of Labor – 860
· Israel Tax Authority – 798
· Israel Post – 708
· The Israel Police – 673
· The Ministry of Education – 621
· The Ministry of Health – 616
· Israel Electric Corporation – 558
5,183 complaints, constituting almost one quarter of all the complaints (23%), dealt with local government bodies. The majority of the complaints were received regarding the Jerusalem Municipality (522), the Bnei Brak Municipality (280) and the Tel Aviv-Yafo Municipality (202). When divided up according to the relative number of complaints per number of residents, the leading authorities in the number of complaints are the Netivot Municipality and the Municipality of Ashkelon – and the considerable increase in the number of complaints regarding them began against the background of the war.
The National Public Transport Authority: The number of complaints had doubled within one year
The Ministry of Transport is the body regarding which the greatest number of letters of complaints were filed from 2021 to 2023. During 2023, an increase of approximately 28% was observed in the number of letters of complaint filed against the Ministry of Transport, compared with 2022 (and an increase of more than twice as much compared with 2020). The majority of complaints against the Ministry of Transport concerned the National Public Transport Authority and the Licensing Department. During 2023, 1,089 complaints were received against the National Public Transport Authority, an increase of almost twice as many complaints against the Authority compared with 2022 (574 complaints) and an increase of almost five times as many compared with 2020 (217 complaints).
The complaints against the Authority dealt with the service to the public (including a delay in handling inquiries and the conduct of drivers and inspectors); in the issuance of fines to passengers; in the travel conditions; in the lack of enforcement in cases of non-compliance with the level of service the public transport operators are committed to (such as, non-compliance with the schedules and failure to stop at bus stops), and in repayments. Approximately 65% of the complaints that concerned the Authority's service to the public were found to be justified.
The Office of the Ombudsman received 43 complaints about the conduct of inspectors. The complaints contained claims of inspectors who cursed passengers and shouted at them, delayed passengers, threw passengers off the bus, stopped the bus, confiscated Rav Kav cards and took mobile phones from the passengers without their permission. It transpired from an investigation of the complaints that the Public Complaints Department at the National Public Transport Authority had not taken care to transfer complaints about unbefitting conduct by inspectors to the Prosecution Unit for a preliminary inspection, in order to examine whether it was pertinent to investigate and put the inspectors on trial (another example of a complaint in this matter can be found below).
Following the Office's inquiry, the Authority notified that it would instruct the inspectors to issue the fines in a respectable manner, and it would clarify to them that it was forbidden for them to delay the busses and disrupt their arrival times. Furthermore, the Director of the Prosecution Unit instructed the employees dealing with public inquiries that every complaint concerning the conduct of inspectors should be transferred to her for inspection prior to it being transferred for investigation – and even instructed to transfer to her for her inspection all the complaints about the conduct of inspectors that had been received since May 2023.
The National Insurance is the second body against which the greatest number of letters of complaint were filed in 2023. The main factor for the increase in the number of letters of complaint as aforesaid compared with 2022 (an increase of 14%) is the war, following which complaints were filed on various matters, including the failure to provide special grants to residents of the north and south following the war, the failure to provide reserve duty payments and payments to victims of hostile activities (the bereaved families and the families of the hostages and missing persons) and the failure to provide unemployment benefit to residents who had been placed on unpaid leave (Halat).
Thus, for example, a soldier who had been drafted into the reserves before the outbreak of the "Swords of Iron" War, and who had served until 25.10.23, applied to the Office of the Ombudsman via the hotline. It transpired from his complaint that even though the minimal payment for one day of reserve duty had increased from NIS 215.17 to NIS 300 for reserve days since 7.10.23, he had received the lesser sum also for the days after the outbreak of the war. Following the Office of the Ombudsman's inquiry to the National Insurance, the complainant received the differential in the sum of NIS 2,165. Furthermore, the National Insurance announced that it would act to locate similar cases and pay out accordingly.
Thus, for example, a soldier who had been drafted into the reserves before the outbreak of the "Swords of Iron" War, and who had served until 25.10.23, applied to the Office of the Ombudsman via the hotline. It transpired from his complaint that even though the minimal payment for one day of reserve duty had increased from NIS 215.17 to NIS 300 for reserve days since 7.10.23, he had received the lesser sum also for the days after the outbreak of the war. Following the Office of the Ombudsman's inquiry to the National Insurance, the complainant received the differential in the sum of NIS 2,165. Furthermore, the National Insurance announced that it would act to locate similar cases and pay out accordingly.
Who complained more?
The rate of men who complained to the Office of the Ombudsman in 2023 was greater than the rate of female complainants (56.5% men, 43.5% women). Nevertheless, among the evacuees who complained in matters concerning the state of emergency from 7.10.23 to 31.12.23, the majority of the complaints came from women (56.9%, compared with 43.1% from men). Women filed more complaints in matters of pensions, housing and education. Men filed more complaints in matters of the service to the public, taxes, consumerism, planning and construction and environmental protection.
During 2023, the majority of the complainants to the Office of the Ombudsman were in the age groups 25-34 (22.4%) and 35-44 (21%). 16.5% of the complainants are aged 65 and over. About two thirds of the complainants have completed 12 years of study or less. It further transpires from the report that Jews filed the greatest number of complaints (20 for every 10,000 persons), while Muslims filed the smallest number of complaints (5.8 for every 10,000 persons). Among the Jewish complainants, 31.5% belonged to the ultra-Orthodox community.
The districts where the number of complainants was the largest during 2023 (for every 10,000 persons) are the Judea and Samaria District (22.2), the Southern District (21.2) and the Jerusalem District (20.4). According to the report, 17.7% of the complainants were supported by the welfare services (50% more than their share of the population).
23.6% of the complainants are persons with disabilities, twice as many as their rate of the population (11.1%).
The "Office is Enlisting" Project
The exposure of IDF soldiers to the activity of the Office of the Ombudsman grants them essential and important knowledge which is relevant not only during the period of military service, but also thereafter, when the soldiers become civilians and come into contact with parties in the public service. In conjunction with the IDF, the Office holds lectures and explanatory activities among the welfare (TASH) personnel and the commanders, with the aim of making things easier for the soldiers and their families to avail themselves of the Office vis-à-vis civilian public bodies. Thus, for example, the Office assisted a lone soldier who was living with his grandmother to receive a discount in the payment of the municipal tax (arnona); it helped a company commander who had been released from permanent service to extend his eligibility for a "From Uniform to Studies" scholarship; and assisted gaining an exemption from the payment of rent to the housing company for a solider in mandatory service whose mother had passed away.
New: A customized investigation track for complaints from children and youth
6% of all the complainants during 2023 were children and youth under the age of 17. With the aim of making it easier for additional children and youth to become acquainted with the Office and avail themselves of it, the State Comptroller and the Ombudsman Matanyahu Englman dedicated a customized investigation track for handling complaints from children and youth. A designated team at the Office, which has undergone training by professionals in the field of communication with children and youth, accompanies the young complainants during the investigation of the complaints they file. Thus, for example, the Office assisted a 15-year-old girl who claimed that the investigation of a complaint she filed at the police about sexual assault and violence by a student at her school had been going on for about six months, without any results. The girl added that due to the boy's continued threats, a restraining order had been issued against the boy, and her family had moved to another city. Following the Office's inquiry, and after receiving an opinion from the Ministry of Welfare and Social Affairs in the boy's matter, the police announced that the file had been immediately transferred to the Office of the State Attorney for handling.
Protecting whistleblowers
During 2023, 41 employees complained that their supervisors had violated their rights after they had exposed acts of corruption. Three complainants received fixed protective orders from the State Comptroller and Ombudsman. Sums of NIS 120,000-170,000 were awarded in two of these orders. These sums include special compensation in respect of harassment and the repayment of expenses, including attorneys' fees. The third order stated that the employer must allow the employee to perform his job in the organization and pay his salary in accordance with the law. Another complainant received an interim protective order, where the Ombudsman held that until the date he had fixed or until he issues another decision, the employer must not dismiss the employee, and he would continue to perform his job in the organization.
Another significant amendment to the statutory provisions, which entered into force during 2023, expanded the protective umbrella of police officers and prison guards who had exposed acts of corruption in their organizations. Currently, these employees may also apply for and receive protection as whistleblowers from the State Comptroller and Ombudsman.
Experience teaches us that the exposure of an act of corruption and the filing of a complaint about harassment following the exposure are liable to cause employees and their families mental distress, health problems, financial difficulties, adversely affect family and social relationships and more. The Office of the Ombudsman makes a social worker available to all the whistleblowers and their families, for the purpose of permanent support and accompaniment, free of charge.
In May 2024, the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) adopted a best practice paper for the protection of whistleblowers that had been written by the Office of the Ombudsman and circulated it to all the ombudsman institutions worldwide.
Approximately 70% of the employees' complaints (29) were filed by men, and approximately 29% of the complaints (12) were filed by women. Approximately 37% of the complaints (15) were filed against local authorities (including municipal companies); approximately 24% of the complaints (10) were filed against government ministers (including auxiliary units); approximately 10% of the complaints (4) were filed against statutory corporations and government companies; approximately 27% of the complaints (11) were filed against other public bodies; approximately 2% of the complaints (1) were filed against bodies that the State Comptroller and Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to investigate complaints against.
Thus, for example, a complainant who had been employed as a secretary and projects coordinator in a regional council in the center of the country applied to receive a protective order from the State Comptroller and Ombudsman. According to her, after she had cooperated in an undercover investigation conducted by the police against senior members of the council, and after the head of the council and some of its employees had been arrested, she was deprived of all her powers at work, and she even began to receive threats on her life. According to her, even after the head of the council had been replaced, her conditions of employment continued to be adversely affected: Her position was taken away from her, she was separated from her colleagues in the department, she was told to work from home (contrary to the council's standard practice at that time) and she was not even given a computer to enable her to do so. After the investigation had been completed, it was decided to grant the complainant a protective order, which prescribed her financial compensation in the sum of NIS 100,000 (NIS 50,000 of which in respect of mental anguish), as well as repayment of legal expenses.
Additional examples of complaints:
The family of a boy with special needs that had been evacuated from its home received an extra room at a hotel
During a visit conducted by representatives from the Office of the Ombudsman at a hotel where evacuees were being housed, a 14-year-old girl approached them, complaining that her parents were being housed in one room, while she and her 16-year-old brother, who had special needs and who was also suffering from a bowel disease, had been housed in another room. The girl detailed the difficulty in the two siblings sharing one room, and requested the Office's assistance in finding a solution, after her appeals to the Ministry of Tourism and the hotel management in the matter had not borne fruit. Following the Office's intervention, the Ministry of Tourism instructed the hotel to allot an additional room to the family.
Lost her hearing aid during the evacuation from Kiryat Shmona – and received a new one
An elderly lady from Kiryat Shmona lost her hearing aid while she was being evacuated from her home in Kiryat Shmona at the beginning of the war.
The woman approached the team from the Office of the Ombudsman who were visiting the hotel to which she had been evacuated, and complained about the fact that Clalit Health Services had not responded to her requests to provide her with a new hearing aid.
In response, Clalit claimed that the complainant had not filed a complete and sufficiently clear declaration regarding the loss and so her request had not yet been dealt with. The Office made it clear to the HMO that it must supply the woman with a hearing aid urgently, so that she could communicate with her surroundings, an especially essential need at the present time – when she was in a strange place. In response, Clalit quickly summoned the complainant for a fitting examination in order to receive a new device.
The police lost the suspect's iPhone – and would compensate him
A person who was interrogated at the Nahariya Police in December 2020 applied to the Office of the Ombudsman and complained that during an interrogation his new iPhone had been taken away. The complainant noted that for three years he had been applying to the police to return the device, but to no avail.
In its reply to the Office, the police admitted that it had lost the complainant's device, and that the investigation file against him had been closed due to lack of sufficient evidence. The police appointed an investigating officer and emphasized that the failure to record the telephone as an exhibit in the investigation file was a serious malfunction. The police announced that it would compensate the complainant for the lost telephone – and it would clarify the directives to the police stations in the matter of seizing exhibits and how to keep a record of them.
Jerusalem: Hundreds of thousands of postal items were not distributed to residents
The Office received recurrent complaints from residents of Jerusalem, mainly from the eastern part of the city, regarding the fact that the Jerusalem Municipality had put a lien on their account following the non-payment of debts, without their having received any prior warning of this. An examination by the Office showed that the Municipality had given the Israel Post the penalty notices and payment demands and had paid it to send them to the debtors, but no documentation was found that the postal company had indeed sent the penalty notices and payment demands.
In view of the recurrence of the complaints in the matter, the Office conducted a systemic investigation in the matter. It was found that approximately 400,000 postal items that had been sent to the main post office in East Jerusalem from 2021 to 2023 had not been distributed as required. The team of employees at the post office had concealed large quantities of postal items that had not been dealt with in the post office's rooms. 96% of all the postal items that had not been distributed belonged to large clients, including the Jerusalem Municipality and the Israel Tax Authority, and comprised 265,000 registered postal items. The postal company informed the Office that it had suspended the unit's manager, and that it had contacted the authorities that had sent the postal items for the purpose of repayment of the delivery fees in the sum of approximately NIS 1.5 million.
Want to register for the "Discounted Housing" lottery? You can identify yourself not just on WhatsApp
A resident of Modi'in Illit wished to take part in a lottery held by the Ministry of Construction and Housing for "Discounted Housing" via registration companies. For the purpose of obtaining confirmation of eligibility to take part in the lottery, she was required to verify her identity via a video call on WhatsApp. The complainant does not own a smartphone for religious reasons, and therefore asked to use another alternative form of identification, such as a Zoom call – but her request was denied. A representative from the registration company suggested that she arrive at one of their branches for the purpose of completing the identification process, but there is no branch close to her home. Following the Office's intervention, the complainant completed the identification process – and the Ministry of Housing instructed the registration companies that in the event that an applicant for confirmation of eligibility cannot make a video call via WhatsApp, he should be allowed to do so via Zoom.
The Office intervened – and the fines for children who had not been able to validate a Rav Kav on the bus were canceled
The parents of five children attending schools in Haifa contacted the Office of the Ombudsman and complained that the children had received fines for non-payment of fares on the bus, even though the bus was very crowded, which prevented them from getting to the ticketing machine. The National Public Transport Authority rejected the requests filed by the children's parents for cancelation of the fines. This was even though the directives of the director of the National Authority to operators stated that "no increased rate should be demanded on a bus that was crowded with passengers in such a way as to prevent a passenger's access to a functioning ticketing machine". After the Office's intervention, the Authority re-examined the requests and instructed Egged to cancel the fines and repay the sums that had been paid. The Authority even informed the Office that it had changed its enforcement policy, and henceforth every complaint about an inspector that had issued a fine even though the bus was crowded would be deemed to be a complaint about an operator's deviation from the Authority's directives and would be transferred for an administrative enforcement process at the Authority.
Arrived at a driving test – and discovered that the examiner had canceled the test ten minutes before the appointed time
The complainant arrived about a quarter of an hour before the start of the test but discovered to his surprise that the examiner had already gone on a driving test with another student. Following this, his driving test was canceled, but the fee he had paid for the driving test that had been canceled was not returned to him. Following the Office of the Ombudsman's inquiry, the Ministry of Transport examined the data on the "Brosh" system, where the driving tests are documented, and it transpired that the examiner had canceled the complainant's test on the system ten minutes before the appointed time. Following the Office's intervention, the Ministry of Transport returned to the complainant the sum of the fee he had paid for the test – and notified the Office that the "Brosh" system would be rectified so as to prevent an examiner from starting a driving test before the appointed time.
A child from Eilat suffering from cancer received repayment of accommodation and travel expenses for treatments at Soroka
The mother of a child from Eilat suffering from cancer requested assistance from the Office of the Ombudsman, after her request to receive repayment from Clalit Health Services for accommodation and travel expenses to Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva for the purpose of receiving oncological treatments, had been rejected. Clalit explained to the complainant that since her son had been admitted to the hospital, she is not eligible under the basket of health services to a contribution to the costs of accommodation on the hospitalization days.
At the Office's request, the HMO re-examined the specification of the child's visits to Soroka – and found that the family was eligible for payment for accommodation expenses for four visits and also to a repayment of travel expenses from Eilat for additional visits.
Blocking disabled car parking spaces at the entrance to a school for children with disabilities
The mother of a child attending a school for children with disabilities in Lod applied to the Office of the Ombudsman and complained that the students' transportation vehicles were stopping at the entrance to the school in a way that blocked the disabled car parking spaces located there. Because of this, the parents of children with physical disabilities were compelled to drop them off unsafely in places that were not intended for stopping.
Following the Office's inquiry, the Lod Municipality notified that it had made new arrangements for the transportation vehicles to stop outside the school. A team from the Office visited the site several times in order to follow-up on the Municipality's handling of the matter – and it transpired that the transportation vehicles were continuing to stop in the disabled car parking spaces since private vehicles were parked in the spaces intended for the transportation vehicles. In response to another inquiry from the Office of the Ombudsman, the Municipality prominently marked on the road the spot intended for transportation vehicles to stop and ordered increased enforcement at the place.