Health and Welfare ministries to take budget cuts - Inside Israel
Government expected to approve budget cuts across all ministries, to make room for additional ministries as per coalition agreements.
by Arutz Sheva StaffThe new government on Sunday will be asked to approve a 1.5% budget cut, which will be evenly distributed across all ministries, Calcalist reported.
The cut is intended to fund the addition of new ministries, and the ministers and deputy ministers which will serve in them.
The Welfare Ministry is expected to lose 3.6 million shekels from its budget, as well as 15 employees. There will also be cuts to the budgets of the National Insurance Institute and the Israeli Employment Service, which are on the front lines helping Israelis recover financially from the coronavirus lockdown. The Health Ministry will lose 4.3 million shekels from its budget, along with 23 employees.
According to Calcalist, the ministers were asked to allow the Finance Ministry to allocate the positions for offices for the following ministries: the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Higher and Supplementary Education, the Settlement Ministry, the Digital and Cyber Ministry, the Minorities Ministry, the Ministry for Communal Advancement and Support, the Alternate Prime Minister's Office, the minister's office in the Defense Ministry, and the minister's office in the Prime Minister's Office.
The funds cut from the ministries' budgets will be used for the new ministries, as well as to open a Housing Headquarters in the Construction and Housing Ministry and a Planning Headquarters in the Interior Ministry. Each of these headquarters will have conditions similar to that of the Finance Ministry's Housing Headquarters.
The proposal includes 22 temporary positions for 2020-2021, to allow for the creation of a Control and Supervision Center for the Management of Coronavirus within the Health Ministry. At the end of 2021, when the Center is dissolved, the positions will be distributed by the government, according to priority, as part of the discussions on the 2022 budget.