The government's Custodian's Office, which is responsible for the management of government and abandoned property in Judea and Samaria has been falling short of meeting its responsibilities, resulting in hundreds of millions of shekels in state losses, State Comptroller Yosef Shapira said in his most recent report, released on Wednesday.
According to the report, the Custodian's Office, which operates under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, has been failing to duly collect tenancy and leasing fees from those using the lands and property across Judea and Samaria. The comptroller recommended a thorough review of the unit's procedures and personnel needs.
A review of the unit's procedures found that it failed to have the people residing in communities built by the Settlement and National Infrastructure Unit in the Defense Ministry sign the proper leasing agreements, despite government directives to the contrary.
The unit further failed to properly collect rent from the residents, which resulted in millions of shekels in state losses. The practice, Shapira said, was also discriminatory against the residents of Judea and Samaria communities built by the Housing Ministry, who are made to pay tenancy and leasing fees on a regular basis.
According to the report, the Israel Land Authority and the Civil Administration said that any such failure was the result of the fact that the Custodian's Office was grossly understaffed. "This is a fundamental failure that has been going on for years," Shapira criticized.
The review further found that the Custodian's Office failed to uphold leasing regulations regarding lands in the Jordan Valley; that it failed to charge the necessary fees for the use of agricultural lands in the area, and that it failed to ensure that those lands were indeed used for agricultural purposes. Here too, the fact that the unit is understaffed was cited as the reason.
The comptroller said that the unit was further amiss in collecting rental fees from gas stations across Judea and Samaria that were built on state lands. This failure has also resulted in heavy financial losses for the state.
The State Comptroller's Office determined that since the onset of the Second Intifada in October 2000, some 95 percent of the Palestinians who lease land or property in Judea and Samaria have defaulted on their payments to the Custodian's Office, "but for the past 12 years the [unit] has done nothing to renew the leasing agreements or collect the fees due."
The report also noted that the Custodian's Office has an ongoing dispute with the Defense Ministry and the IDF over payment for the leasing of 865 acres across Judea and Samaria, which are used by the military as bases and training facilities. The IDF and the Defense Ministry claim that under international law, the Custodian's Office cannot demand payment for their use of the land. The comptroller noted that the dispute had not been resolved by the time the report was concluded, and urged both parties to devise a solution.
"The Civil Administration, Israel Land Authority and various senior officials in the relevant government ministries were all aware of these failures, as they have been ongoing for years," Shapira's report said. "This is a case of ongoing neglect, enforcement failures and hundreds of millions of shekels in losses for the state and the area's communities."
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