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| By Israel Insider staff July 25, 2007 |
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert defended himself Wednesday at a Knesset State Control Committee meeting against allegations involving the Investment Center case brought on by State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss.
"The report has nothing to do with reality," the prime minister said, "I read what was written in the report, and I don't accept the interpretation there. I acted according to my duties, and any minister who would not, would be mishandling his job."
According to a scathing report Lindenstrauss released in April entitled "Israel Investments Center - Uri Messer," Olmert, during his tenure as industry, trade and labor minister, was supposedly involved in an Investment Center decision that granted $10 million to a factory represented by Uriel Messer, his close friend, lawyer and former business partner.
Olmert staunchly defended his actions at the State Control Committee, rejecting the accusation that his relationship with Messer presented a conflict of interest.
"I do not accept the findings of the comptroller's report and maintain that there was no conflict of interest in attorney Messer's involvement," he stated.
Lindenstrauss reiterated his claims that Olmert acted inappropriately in dealing with Messer, and should have abstained involvement.
"You, as a minister, are forbidden to interfere in the Investment Center's decisions. You should let the professionals handle things that law authorized them to handle. The matter of integrity is what is on trial here," stated Lindenstrauss.
"The smallest and minimal step would have been to get up and say 'I'm dismissing myself' [...] you dealt with something you shouldn?t have dealt with. Maybe you were trying to promote your friend, or maybe you did it for other reasons. In any case, you shouldn't have done it," he said.
Despite his rejection of the allegations, Olmert maintained Wednesday that his response to the report did not include any personal criticism of the comptroller.
"I have a great deal of respect for the comptroller, and little if any respect for those who have made a circus out of this matter," he said.
However, when the report was first released, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office harshly criticized the comptroller, saying that "the comptroller's behavior in this matter reached new levels of shamelessness and lack of professionalism," continuing that Olmert had lost faith in Lindenstrauss.
Following Lindenstrauss' report, Attorney General Menachem Mazuz opened a criminal investigation in April into the allegations against Olmert. The allegations involve the tire manufacturing company Silicate Industries Inc., who, sponsored by the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, applied to the Investment Center in October of 2001 to gain status as an "approved industry." This status would enable to company to receive government funding to build a factory in Dimona, with an investment cost of $48 million.
Olmert has been accused of pressuring the government to approve the factory's opening despite opposition from ministry officials, shortly after Messer was employed as the factory's attorney.
The Prime minister's lawyer, Eli Zohar, told Haaretz in April that "... there is no substantive or legal justification that Olmert should have disqualified himself from deliberations in this matter. This may appear to be a conflict of interests, but not a blatant conflict of interests, and also not an illegitimate conflict of interests. It is true that Messer was Olmert's partner 20 years earlier and that he is occasionally dealing on his behalf with real estate deals, but their association did not create any bond that establishes the sort of commitment that requires the minister to consider disqualifying himself." |
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