Knesset speaker: Government not meeting requirements to enable proper oversight

Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, Israel's government ministries have not been meeting legal requirements to report to the Knesset (parliament) to enable proper oversight of its actions, Knesset Speaker MK Amir Ohana wrote in a letter to government secretary Yossi Fuchs on Wednesday.

Israel's Knesset has two main responsibilities: creating laws and overseeing Israel's executive branch. However, Ohana argued in the letter that the government was not meeting at least three different requirements to enable the Knesset to perform the duty of oversight. Knesset secretary Dan Marzouk penned the letter with Ohana's consent.

According to Marzouk, the first requirement that was not met was for government ministers to respond to queries by Members of the Knesset within the period of time required by law. The second was that government ministries were required to report within three months on their actions in response to certain conclusions approved in Knesset committees or the Knesset plenum. The third area where the government was not fulfilling its duties was its representatives were not appearing in Knesset committees despite being summoned.

"Alongside the understanding that the government ministries are under a heavy workload, it must be remembered that it is the Knesset's duty, especially in these times, to continue to oversee the work of the government," Marzouk wrote. He requested that the letter be brought to the government ministers' attention and that the ministries respond to the queries and file reports whose deadlines have passed within one month.

Missing deadlines?

According to data included in the letter, the government has missed its deadline on 454 direct queries from members of Knesset, 305 of which are over 50 days late. The defense ministry had the most unanswered queries out of all ministries, at 75, 64 of which were over 50 days late.

In addition, the government ministries had not addressed 91 committee conclusions within the required three months. The National Security Ministry led this category with 15 conclusions that were not addressed.