City comptroller 'celebrations' in Hareidi education department section in Jerusalem

Haredi Education Division employees in the Jerusalem Municipality 'played' with attendance hours and were observed during work hours time engaged in personal pursuits. One employee reported sick leave and made use of the time for shopping.

As reported by the Jerusalem Municipality comptroller for 2012 published today (Thursday) with a whole chapter devoted to extensive to "celebrations" at the Hareidi wing.

The findings, according to the auditor, showed that most of the division's employees are late for work, relative to the hour agreed on in their work contract. According to the report, many workers reported the hours of entry and exit from work by hand instead of using the attendance clock.

For example, an employee in the wing was absent from work for two days. She explained her absence with illness and gave a sick permit. But the employee did not know that she is under follow-up, and was observed while engaged in shopping.

In other cases, according to the report, two employees went shopping during the work day, four employees manually fixed hours of their entry and exit. Five other employees were seen engaged in personal pursuits while reporting these hours as work hours.

In one of the cases listed in the report, one of the employees in the department handed her working her attendance sheet to her supervisor for approval. After the supervisor had signed the attendance sheet, the employee changed the attendance reports. The original report was written in pencil and the revised report was written in pen.

She then transferred the sheet for further treatment by the manpower secretary. "The critic sees this act as alleged fraud and recommended to examine the actions with the city attorney and consider whether to file a complaint with the police," the report stated.

The report shows that the city filed a disciplinary action against eight employees after finding that their attendance reports are seemingly false and for seven of them a criminal investigation was started after the municipality filed a complaint against them. For 4 employees a hearing before suspension was held.

"One has to eradicate this phenomenon, which the audit has warned about many times," the letter said.

The municipality said in response that it is strongly opposed to such phenomena, and acted immediately and resolutely in an endeavor to eliminate them. "The workers against whom there were suspicious findings, were immediately transferred for trial. The municipality will not ignore such acts, causing serious damage to public confidence in the municipality and its employees who are mostly devoted and loyal to their work."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!