Comptroller slams Bar Ilan University's management

Shapira says administration violates standards on salaries, nepotism; university decries "harsh, unfounded" judgements.

By YONAH JEREMY BOB
Bar Ilan Universtyi students college lawn hanging out 390 (photo credit: Courtesy Bar Ilan University)
Bar Ilan Universtyi students college lawn hanging out 390
(photo credit: Courtesy Bar Ilan University)
State Comptroller Joseph Shapira issued a report on Wednesday criticizing Bar- Ilan University’s administration for violating standards regarding salaries and favoring family members, among other things.
The university gets 60 percent of its funding from the state and as a result is bound by certain government standards in its administration.
The report was distributed to the university on November 29 to give it an opportunity to review and respond prior to its distribution to the public.
The report directs particular criticism at the management of Bar-Ilan University by its president, Moshe Kaveh and the director-general, attorney Haim Glick.
Kaveh has been president since 1996 and Glick has been in office since 2008.
The report says that the committee which was supposed to supervise salaries served as a “rubber stamp” for Kaveh instead of exercising independent judgment and oversight.
In some instances, the report accuses Kaveh of giving inappropriately high compensation packages to top management officials, such a Glick, without even notifying the committee, and of avoiding disclosing aspects of the packages.
The report also said that Kaveh was inappropriately involved in extending his tenure as president and in granting the rights to operate a restaurant in the university to family members.
Bar-Ilan university issued a statement that it “protests the gap between the harsh and unfounded judgments of the report’s conclusions and the findings of the report itself.”
The statement noted that the university – both academically and administratively – had developed significantly in moving forward with new areas like “nanotechnology, engineering and medicine,” and as a “natural result” of the expansion, initially there had been “some errors.”
The university was surprised that the report made such an issue out of these errors, especially since it said they had already been addressed. The statement also said that compensation for university management “was equivalent to that of management in other universities,” that Kaveh had not been involved in the selection of the restaurant operator and that his family members “did not control” the company operating the restaurant.
A statement by the comptroller indicated that as a result of the violations, the Finance Ministry’s department of salaries has already contacted Bar-Ilan University to return certain funds that it received from the state.
A copy of the report has also been forwarded to Attorney- General Yehuda Weinstein to review for any possible criminal conduct.