State comptroller says government bloated, inefficient, with widespread dysfunction

Audit finds too many ministries, constant reshuffles have disrupted governance, weakened services, contributed to failure to rehabilitate northern Israel

State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warned Tuesday that Israel’s government is unusually large and inefficient, with up to three times as many ministries as European countries, around half of which do not exist elsewhere.

Issuing a new comptroller report, Englman said that political considerations have driven repeated structural changes that undermine government effectiveness, disrupt public services and hamper efforts to rehabilitate the north.

In a report examining the structure of Israel’s government, Englman found that Israel’s government “is characterized by a large number of ministries compared to the rest of the world, and by frequent changes — the opening and closing of ministries and the transfer of authorities between them.”

The audit found that successive governments have expanded in size despite repeated recommendations since 2011 to reduce the number of ministries. For example, while Israel had 31 ministries in 2024, Sweden, with a similar population and roughly 20 times larger size, had just 11.

Even during the ongoing war, a decision to examine closing superfluous ministries was largely never implemented, with Englman concluding that “political considerations and constraints ultimately outweigh the need” to streamline government operations.

The Finance Ministry recommended closing 10 superfluous government ministries in order to offset the strain put on the budget by the war in Gaza in December 2023, including the Settlements and National Missions Ministry, Jerusalem and Jewish Tradition Ministry, and the Heritage Ministry. To date, of the ministries included in the proposal, only the Advancement of the Status of Women Ministry has been closed.

The comptroller also highlighted the scale of bureaucratic upheaval: between 2020 and 2024, no fewer than 76 changes were made, transferring areas of responsibility between ministries, with some functions moved multiple times.

For instance, the Authority for the Development and Settlement of the Bedouin in the Negev was moved no fewer than six times among seven different ministries since its establishment amid political maneuvering.

These repeated shifts, the report found, have weakened government effectiveness, eroded institutional knowledge, and wasted millions in public funds.

Englman singled out the government’s failure to rehabilitate northern Israel as “one of the most painful failures caused by the government’s conduct.”

“In less than two years, the government made several decisions to transfer responsibility between ministries and officials — even during a state of emergency and wartime,” he said.

The lack of a consistent government approach, Englman added, contributed to fundamental failures identified in a previous June 2025 report, including the absence of a multi-year rehabilitation plan for the north and “the government’s inability” to return displaced residents and rebuild the region.

He called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is authorized to appoint ministers and bring structural changes to the government agenda, to “ensure continuous and proper government functioning, while maintaining efficient service to the public even as ministries are opened, closed, or reorganized.”

The criticism comes against a backdrop of longstanding gaps in preparedness and investment in the north. A January audit by Englman’s office found that the Home Front Command had frozen the “Northern Shield” program, launched in 2018, to prepare Israel’s northern civilian front for emergencies, including by addressing bomb shelter shortages, after the government transferred only about 52% of the roughly NIS 3 billion ($960 million) allocated for the project.

According to the comptroller, the government approved a multi-year program without allocating the necessary budget.

More than 60,000 residents of northern communities were evacuated when Hezbollah began attacking Israel with rockets, missiles and drones a day after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, invasion. In late 2024, Israel launched a massive campaign against the group that caused it immense damage, and which ended in a November 2024 ceasefire.

Since the fighting in Lebanon was renewed on March 2, Hezbollah has been relentlessly bombarding northern communities, firing around 2,500 rockets and around 300 drones at Israel, according to the IDF.