Main Inquiry
- In his last position in the IPS, the witness served as head of the Treasury Branch. His main interface with the defendant was in the years 2014-2016, when he served for about two and a half years as a staff officer and manager in the Central District. In this position, he was responsible, among other things, for construction and logistics (pp. 677-678). At the same time, he served as head of the Procurement Department at the Ombudsman between the years 2007-2017 (p. 678).
- The witness described the processes of the construction projects in the district. Needs arise from the units (prisons), financial estimates are made, the district commander approves and allocates a budget. The list of projects is forwarded to the head of the construction department in the commission for professional approval (p. 679). At the same time, there are larger commissioned projects, which are managed by the commission's construction department (p. 679).
- As for the supervision of the projects, in each project there is a "project book" in the unit, which documents the entry of contractors and materials. The prison administration is aware of the projects, but not of the technical details ("... The director or deputy knows that there are certain things and he knows what the contents of the project are, he does not know how much concrete is put ... if they changed the flooring and how much that flooring is 60 by 60 or 90 by 90... it does not come down to such resolutions..."" (p. 680). Three supervisory bodies – the unit, the district headquarters and the construction department, when he says: "... Not every renovation for 20,000 shekels is done by someone from the construction department and checks it... He goes at some stage and sees that the project is done in a big way, he doesn't check with the resolution of a diary..." (p. 680).
- In his role as accountant, he cannot know what was done in the field ("... I do not go to Ma'asiyahu Prison to see whether it was carried out or not and whether two tons of concrete or one and a half tons of concrete were poured...") (p. 682). He relied on signatures of approval. In large projects, the defendant and the project manager signed, but in a project of NIS 20,000 there is no external manager, and the defendant always had the backing of the unit.
The unit knew what the project was, but "... the prison director does not know whether they made 20 meters of ceramics or 17 meters of ceramics... He knows that they renovated the dining room..." (p. 683). The defendant was involved in local projects, in which the commissioning unit and the district commander were also involved, and the final approval was given by the head of the construction department (p. 685).