The government’s legislation committee greenlit on Tuesday a bill proposal to determine that the influential Civil Service Commissioner (CSC) will be chosen by the prime minister and elected by the government, and not via an independent competitive appointment procedure.
The bill proposal, by Likud MKs Ofir Katz and Amit Halevy, would also enable the prime minister to appoint an interim CSC for up to two three-month periods, or for longer in “extraordinary circumstances.”
The bill’s purpose is to overcome a High Court of Justice ruling of May 12 whereby the CSC must be appointed in a competitive procedure, and may not be selected individually by the prime minister due to the commissioner’s important function in maintaining the apolitical nature of Israel’s public service sector.
The CSC is the official supervisor of the state’s tens of thousands of workers in the public sector. The position’s authority includes chairing a large number of appointment and firing committees for various high-level positions; approving government requests to recruit employees without a tender; and implementing government policy regarding the public sector.
Despite its importance, the method of appointing the commissioner is not laid out in the law, which merely says that it is a government appointment that does not require a tender.
Government, High Court butt heads on Civil Service Comissioner
A number of High Court rulings and government decisions in the past two decades have addressed the issue of the CSC appointment method, but by the end of the tenure of former commissioner Daniel Hershkovitz, that had yet to be determined. The method of appointing a replacement has pitted the government against the attorney-general and the High Court of Justice.
The government made numerous attempts to take measures to enable the prime minister to select the identity of the CSC, following vetting procedures. The government has since appointed an interim commissioner and recently attempted to appoint another. The High Court ruling on May 12 put an end to those attempts and stated that the appointment needed to be the outcome of a competitive process based on objective criteria.
High Court Judges Yizhak Amit and Dafna Barak-Erez ruled that there was “no longer room for the practice in which the political echelon decides and modifies the appointment mechanism at its discretion, based on considerations that are not transparent to the public.”
In a dissenting opinion, High Court Judge Noam Solberg argued that the issue did not necessitate judicial intervention, since “It is very difficult to determine that there is a legal obligation to appoint the commissioner through a competitive process, as the law explicitly exempts it from the requirement of a competitive tender.”
Instead of waiting for its weekly Sunday meeting, the committee, which is responsible for determining the government’s position on pieces of legislation, convened specially via Zoom on Tuesday in order to approve the bill, indicating the coalition’s intent to expedite its legislative process.
Deputy Attorney-General Dr. Gil Limon opposed the law earlier on Tuesday.
In a nine-page legal opinion, Limon argued that the bill “clearly illustrates the attempts to politicize the civil service, as highlighted by the Supreme Court in the Brandeis Institute ruling. These attempts necessitate strengthening the protection of the Civil Service Commissioner’s independence and ensuring their non-dependence on the political echelon. This is crucial in maintaining the professionalism and neutrality of the Civil Service and serving the interests of the entire public.
In a letter responding to Limon, Government Secretary Yossi Fuchs accused the Attorney General’s Office of “deciding to ‘conquer’ the last stronghold that has yet to be conquered.”
Fuchs wrote that Limon was blocking the government from carrying out its duties and added that the office “was not handling the national need to maintain the institutional core of the Civil Service and continued to paralyze it based on absurd and far-reaching legal assumptions.”
Adv. Rotem Bavli Dvir, head of the legal department at the Movement for Quality Government in Israel (MQG), said in a statement on Tuesday, “The High Court ruled unequivocally in our petition that the appointment process for the Civil Service Commissioner must be based on a competitive process and not be a political appointment.
“Moreover, Judge Barak-Erez ruled in the ruling that action must be taken as soon as possible to formulate an appropriate competitive process to fill the position. The current situation, in which the position is filled with interim appointments or not filled at all, severely harms the functioning of the Civil Service Commission and the public service sector as a whole,” he said.
“We call upon the government to act without delay to implement the ruling and to appoint a permanent civil service commissioner after a proper competitive process.”
Bavli Dvir concluded: “It is time for the government to respect the High Court’s decision and work toward the appointment of a professional and permanent Civil Service Commissioner. We will continue to monitor the implementation of the ruling and act with all means at our disposal to ensure a professional, independent, and apolitical public service that works for the benefit of the public and not for narrow political interests.”