State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss today published his follow-on report, "The Fire and Rescue Services preparedness for an emergency". The report comes three years after the previous State Comptroller report that dealt with the failures in Israel's home front protection system during the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and the flaws found in the Fire and Rescue Services, and four days after the last fire on Mount Carmel was extinguished. Lindenstrauss's conclusions are grim: recommendations were not implemented, and the condition of the Fire and Rescue Services has deteriorated to the point of a real danger of collapse during an emergency.

"Regrettably, we have just witnessed a huge fire raging on the Carmel, which killed scores of Israel Prison Service, Israel Police, and Fire and Rescue Services personnel, including a teenage volunteer fireman, and injured others, including many civilians. The fire, which amounts to a national disaster, also destroyed much property. The failures of the past have again been revealed in all their severity," writes Lindenstrauss in the introduction to the report, which is described as "very serious", and points to an ongoing failure by the Ministry of Interior and the minister who heads it.

Minister of Interior Eli Yishai, who bears the ministerial responsibility for the Fire and Rescue Services, is not alone at the pillory. Lindenstrauss points to the repeated attempts by Yishai to deal with the problem, and adds that the responsibility for the failures falls on additional ministers, especially Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz and Minister of Defense Ehud Barak.

In the follow-on report, Lindenstrauss found that the Fire and Rescue Services were, and still are, the weak link in the national rescue services. The Fire and Rescue Services' condition has deteriorated in recent years to the point that it is at risk of collapse during an emergency, which is liable to cost lives and property, and harm the resilience of the home front.

"It is necessary to immediately stop the foot-dragging in the handling of the Fire and Rescue Services, and the buck-passing by one minister to another," says Lindenstrauss.

On a more personal note he says that, regrettably, today's report will not be the last in a series of reports on "painful issues" if the relevant parties do not immediately draw conclusions and learn the lessons of the report.

Lindenstrauss went so far as to imply that the time has come to settle the old argument and to give "teeth" to the Office of the State Comptroller. "Personally, I am increasingly persuaded that only extraordinary and substantive measures, which I will not list here, will be able to end the old adage, 'The dogs bark and the convoy moves on'."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news