Matanyahu Englman

Matanyahu Englman
מתניהו אנגלמן
Matanyahu Englman
Born	Matanyahu Englman (1966-06-08) June 8, 1966 (age 55) Rehovot, Israel
Education	Yeshivat Har Etzion Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Occupation	Accountant

Matanyahu Englman (Hebrew: מתניהו אנגלמן; b. June 8, 1966) is the State Comptroller of Israel.

Previously, he served as CEO of the Council for Higher Education in Israel, CEO of the Technion, Chairman of the Israeli Universities CEOs, CEO of the Local Council Shoham, and Deputy CEO of Azrieli College of Engineering Jerusalem. He is an Accountant in his profession.

Biography[]

Mordechai Matanyahu Engelman was born in Rehovot to Hasia (daughter of Yehuda Kiel) and Benjamin Engelman, a physicist at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center, a former Technion faculty member and founder of the Master's Program in Physics at Tel Aviv University.^{[citation needed]}

Engelman is a graduate of High School and Yeshivat Har Etzion. In the IDF, he served in the Armored Corps as a tank commander.

Engelman holds a bachelor's degree in economics and accounting and a master's degree in business administration, both with honors from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Before being elected by the Knesset to the State Comptroller position in June 2019,^[1] he served as CEO for the Council for Higher Education in Israel. Before that, during 2014-2018, he was the CEO of the Technion. He is the first non-judge to be elected to the oversight role in over three decades and is considered as having a less-activist, more conservative approach to the position.^[2] A favourite of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he succeeded over the other State Comptroller candidate, Giora Romm.

State Comptroller reforms[]

Reports[]

In preparation for the submission of his first reports on December 31, 2019, Engelman presented a change in the format of summaries of state audit reports. According to it, the auditor's reports will be presented to the public in a new and more accessible format. Instead of a text saturated with more than 20 pages, which sometimes made it difficult to understand the report and explain the auditor's shortcomings and recommendations in the report, the summary will include only an average of one and a half pages and focus on the ten main findings at the core of the report. In addition, the abstract will include "key data" and extensive use of infographics that will summarize the audit findings into key numbers and data.^[3]

In 2020, the State Comptroller published 111 audit reports, in March, May, July, August and October. These reports incorporated financial audits and conducted an annual audit of the State's financial statements.^[4][5] In addition, a cyber and information systems division was established to develop audit capabilities regarding the readiness of state authorities for strategic threats and significant risks to which they may be exposed.^[6]

State Comptroller Netanyahu Engelman visits the climate exhibition at the Tel Aviv University Science Museum

The special audit report on the National Climate Action by the Government of Israel, was submitted by State Comptroller, Matanyahu Engelman, to the Knesset and presented to the public at October 2021, in preparation for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26), scheduled to meet in early November 2021.^[7]

Permits Committee reform[]

In August 2019, three members of the Permits Committee resigned after their level of autonomy was reduced by Englman. The Committee is made out of six judges who decide whether to permit ethical requests from ministers. This includes an outstanding case on permitting Prime Minister Netanyahu to finance his legal defense for the investigations involving him from relatives or through donations.^[8] A few weeks later, Englman's pick for chairperson of the Permits Committee announced she has declined the position.^[9]

In September 2019, after having been denied twice by the Permits Committee, Englman approved Netanyahu's request to receive a $2 million loan for his legal defense from American businessman Spencer Partridge. The decision has come under criticism, with the Movement for Quality Government in Israel calling it "strange and suspicious."^[10] This was rejected by the Supreme Court of Israel in January 2020, on the grounds that a trending political affiliation can not be determined on the basis of past actions, but such problematic should be raised only if there is evidence that the actions of the committee members exceed the actual good taste. ^[11]

Personal life[]

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Born in Rehovot, his mother Hasia, was the daughter of educator Yehuda Kiel, while his father, Benjamin Englman was a physicist who worked in the Soreq Nuclear Research Center. A bookkeeper by profession, Englman is married with six children. He and his wife, Esther Abigail (the daughter of Moshe Mendelbaum, former governor of the Bank of Israel), both reside in Nof Ayalon.

References[]