Margi received pension of NIS 1.8 million
An employee fired from the Religious Affairs Ministry filed a suit alleging that the pension monies were paid to the minister illegally
02/03/2011 13:27
Tags: Shas · Israel · fraud
Yaacov Margi Flash90
A former senior employee at the Religious Affairs Ministry claims that the minister, Yaakov Margi of Shas, unlawfully received a pension of NIS 1.8 million after retiring as head of the religious council in Be’er Sheva. The employee, Dafna Cohen, makes the allegations in a lawsuit that she has filed with the Jerusalem Regional Labor Court, the website News1 reports. Cohen, who is represented by the attorneys Yeshayahu Avraham and Moshe Ben David, was in charge of the personnel department for religious councils at the Religious Affairs Ministry from 2008-2010. She claims that she was fired illegally because she had begun to expose ongoing irregularities in the ministry’s work. It transpired that Cohen’s predecessor, Rina Haleli, had approved the illegal pension for Margi, and was therefore able to exert heavy pressure on him and on the ministry’s director-general, Avigdor Ohana. The suit contends that Margi received the pension when he was 42, whereas the minimum age was 45. It also alleges that he received an increase that was reserved for individuals who headed religious councils in 1990, whereas he took up his post in 1993. According to the lawsuit, Margi’s monthly pension is NIS 19,000. Currently he receives only NIS 13,000 of that sum, since he is serving as a minister and an MK. Thus, the suit
Margi has received NIS 1.8 million since his retirement in 2003.
maintains that Margi has received NIS 1.8 million since his retirement in 2003. Cohen details numerous other deficiencies that she says she uncovered at the Religious Affairs Ministry. Among other things, the suit alleges that Margi and Ohana sought to “frame” the head of the religious council in Lod, Daniel Ben-Saadon, who belongs to Aryeh Deri’s contingent in Shas. The lawsuit cites senior officials at the Religious Affairs Ministry who said that the intention was to appoint an associate of the Shas Party chairman, Interior Minister Eli Yishai, in place of Ben-Saadon, as was done at many religious councils. According to Cohen, Margi and Ohana appointed a committee of inquiry to review the activity of the Lod religious council. Cohen herself was on this committee, as was Yitzhak Yishai, who is related to Minister Yishai. Cohen alleges that Yitzhak Yishai tried to pin on Ben-Saadon responsibility for deficiencies that had existed for years at all of the religious councils. A statement from the Religious Affairs Ministry said that Margi’s pension had been calculated by professional clerks. The ministry further said that there is no truth to Cohen’s claims regarding the review board’s investigation of the religious council in Lod, and that Yitzhak Yishai is distantly related to Minister Eli Yishai and that there is no connection between them.