Defense Establishment Comptroller Unit

Defense Establishment Comptroller Unit (Hebrew: יחידת מבקר מערכת הביטחון‎) is an Israel Defense Forces unit which supervises and oversees the fitness, preparedness, and legality of the Israeli Security Forces' activities, in all its parts. It reports to the Minister of Defense, Director-general of the Ministry of Defense, and the Chief of Staff on these issues.

History

The body was established in 1976 and was originally subordinate to what then the Operations Directorate (the most senior branch in the IDF). In 1994, it was placed under the deputy head of the Operations Directorate. In 2004, it was placed under the command of the Deputy Chief of Staff.

The Defense Establishment Comptroller

Unlike other IDF units, the Defense Establishment Comptroller Unit is headed by a civilian, who is one of three civilian members in the General Staff. As of August 2002, the Defense Establishment Comptroller is Brigadier-General (Ret.) Yossi Beinhorn.

Criticisms by the State Comptroller

The unit has come under repeated criticisms by the Israeli State Comptroller (a position comparable to a cabinet post) for suffering from various deficiencies. In its 2003 report, it noted that the IDF's internal comptroller units, who are organizationally part of the respective branches (illegally so) and professionally subordinate to the Defense Establishment Comptroller, operate without any involvement from the latter. In his 2005 report, the State Comptroller, Eliezer Goldberg, maintained that Defense Establishment Comptroller failed to foster consistent conduct among the 80 IDF internal comptrollership bodies, and that the unit failed to undertake inspections in the frequency required by regulations.

References

• Moshe Barda, Summary of the State Comptroller reports, submitted to the Knesset Committee for State Comptrollership, March 2003 (Hebrew)
• Eliezer Goldberg (Israel's State Comptroller, "The internal comptrollership in the IDF", NFC, August 31, 2005 (Hebrew)