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del.icio.us Digg It!  new Banana Republic / Who deceived the Brodet Committee? By Guy Leshem Tags: Defense Ministry  May marked a major change in Israeli history. A public commission, appointed by the cabinet to examine defense spending and the functioning of the Israel Defense Forces and Defense Ministry, presented a 190-page report (in the censored version). It was filled with dramatic facts, conclusions and recommendations - all based on what was presented as the most comprehensive economic examination ever of the defense budget and its management. The committee, chaired by former Finance Ministry director general David Brodet, included a number of economists and former senior officials in the defense establishment. Advertisement Among its recommendations was raising defense spending to NIS 46 billion a year, with a fixed annual increase in spending for a decade. The committee also harshly criticized the way the IDF and the rest of the defense establishment worked with the treasury, accusing them of manipulating the figures presented to the government to increase their budget. But now, a document obtained by TheMarker shows that more than half a year after the report and the start of implementation, there were people in the Defense Ministry (and possibly the treasury) who deceived the Brodet Committee and possibly even changed its recommendations. This revelation, whose damage is still hard to estimate, is owed to two disabled IDF veterans and lawyers, Kobi Zakai and Moshe Aloni. The lawyers read the section on the Defense Ministry's Rehabilitation Division very carefully. They were startled to find that the committee recommended a significant cut to the rights of disabled vets and bereaved families. The two had a very difficult time understanding how such a respected and experienced group of people could reach such conclusions, some of which seemed to Aloni and Zakai to be more than only mistaken or based on inattention to details. Some of the conclusions seemed to them to be based on totally unrealistic assumptions. As a result, the two filed a request under the Freedom of Information Law to receive the documents that the treasury and Defense Ministry presented to the committee. They also asked for the protocols of the sessions where the ministry officials testified about the Rehabilitation Division. After six months of foot-dragging they received their answer: a two-page document. They received an extremely careful legalistic turn of phrase from the official responsible for the Freedom of Information Law in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), under whose auspices the committee operated. The document they received implied that someone had tried to pull one over on the committee's members. The official added that the two lawyers could receive only part of the documents presented to the committee because some figures were "incorrect and were based on an incorrect economic analysis in preparing the presentation." The documents involved were part of a presentation prepared by the Rehabilitation Division, and presented to the committee by the division's head, Ronny Moreno. In addition, it turns out that other documents included "incorrect economic forecasts that do not reflect the situation existing today," wrote the PMO official. Referring to another document, the Freedom of Information Law official said the committee was presented only partial information. Concerning the protocols of the meetings where the official from the treasury's Budget Division testified, the response was: "From the examination conducted with the Budgets Division, section 6 of the protocol does not represent the division's position." That the figures used were incorrect and deceptive of course was never mentioned in the committee's report. And of course the cabinet adopted them in full and started implementing them. Chairman Brodet said in response: "We have recommended establishing a professional team to examine a number of issues which should be examined and studied again. If the two [disabled veterans] have any complaints against the relevant ministries as to incorrect figures, they should turn to them." The Finance Ministry said the figures involved were presented by the Defense Ministry. The Defense Ministry responded: "The Rehabilitation Division, as with all divisions of the ministry that were asked, presented the Brodet Committee economic figures on its activities. The presentation included 73 slides filled with information, and in an insignificant number of them the committee made a number of constructive and practical comments, which we see as an important tool for improving our joint work. We would like to emphasize that the information was not discussed by the committee and therefore did not have any effect on its conclusions." Bookmark to del.icio.us Serious accusation Iran claims that U.S. data on their nuclear program came from spying. No plans to stop The Housing Minister says there's no reason to stop E. J'lem construction.

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