State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman warned on Tuesday that local authorities are falling short on basic systems that shape daily life in Israel, from traffic cameras to social workers carrying wartime caseloads to buildings that still may not be safe years after the state identified them as dangerous.
In his annual report on local government, Englman found that municipalities and government ministries often know what needs fixing but have not finished the work required to fix it.
He called for clearer limits on enforcement cameras, capped social workers’ caseloads, a national urban renewal plan, faster business licensing reform, local climate plans, cyber monitoring, and renewed supervision of Pal-Kal buildings.
The report is less about one dramatic failure and more about a pattern: local government is on the front line, but too often without the rules, budgets, data, or follow-up needed to work properly.
On traffic enforcement cameras, Englman said that local authorities’ use of cameras to enforce parking and public transportation lane rules “makes enforcement more efficient,” but warned that it “may harm the privacy of passersby and therefore requires careful examination and proportionate and limited use.”
The audit found that only six of 38 local authorities with public transportation lanes had published on their websites that they enforced bus-lane offenses using cameras.
Of the four authorities examined – Herzliya, Hadera, Ramat Gan, and Binyamina-Givat Ada – 189 cameras were used, around 121,000 tickets were issued in 2024, and the fines were worth around NIS 44 million.
The problem, the comptroller found, was not only how many tickets were issued but also how the cameras were managed. Some authorities kept images at a resolution that allowed inspectors to identify passersby.
Binyamina-Givat Ada continued filming with four enforcement cameras even after it stopped using them for parking enforcement in March 2024 and redesignated them for security use.
The problem goes beyond local authorities
The Transport and Road Safety Ministry, meanwhile, had not advanced the process of requesting local authorities that do not currently enforce bus-lane offenses to begin doing so, even though it received that authority at the end of 2022.
“Local authorities must use enforcement cameras in a proportionate and fair manner and for the purpose of achieving the goal of enforcing traffic laws while protecting the right to privacy of passersby,” Englman said.
He recommended that authorities periodically ask a simple question: does this camera still serve the reason it was put here? If not, he said, they should stop filming or move it.
The war also runs through the report. The comptroller said that the events of October 7 and the war that followed “demonstrated the importance of the role of social workers in social services departments.”
But the audit found that those departments were already struggling, and the war made the strain worse. In 2024, there were 1,155 unfilled social worker positions in municipal social services departments nationwide, equal to 16% of positions.
Of the authorities examined, the share of unfilled positions ranged from 1% in Modi’in-Maccabim-Reut to 34% in Kiryat Motzkin.
The Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry still had not set the maximum number of cases that may be assigned to each social worker, even though more than two decades had passed since the relevant allocation formula was set.
In a questionnaire conducted for the audit, 74% of responding social workers said the workload in their department had increased since the outbreak of the war to a large or very large extent.
Another 54% said they had experienced burnout to a large or very large extent because of the war.
Englman recommended that the Welfare Ministry work with local authorities to retain social workers and quickly finish setting a maximum caseload, especially because demand for welfare services is expected to grow.
On urban renewal, he described the policy as “a strategic tool” for planning and construction, particularly because Israel needs more housing and older buildings must be protected against earthquakes, rockets, and missiles.
But the audit found that the projects most likely to move forward are the ones that make financial sense for developers. That leaves many peripheral cities, where the need may be urgent but the economics are weaker, behind.
The war has made the issue greater
Some 58% of urban renewal projects are being promoted or implemented in the Central and Tel Aviv districts.
In 23 evacuation-and-construction projects promoted in Beit She’an, Tiberias, Safed, and Kiryat Shmona between 2017 and 2025 – all highly exposed to earthquakes and war risks – no building permits had been issued.
“The need to reinforce buildings against earthquakes is not receiving a sufficient response,” Englman said, adding that communities exposed to these dangers do not have enough projects to renew the built environment.
Despite previous recommendations, Israel still has no national policy document or unified national plan for urban renewal, noted the comptroller.
He recommended that the Prime Minister’s Office, Israel Land Authority, Planning Administration, and Government Authority for Urban Renewal encourage projects in places where there is not enough economic incentive.
Many businesses are operating without proper licensing
The report also found major gaps in the business licensing reform, meant to make it easier and faster to open and operate businesses legally.
Despite the reform, 20.5% of businesses requiring licensing were operating without approval to open in 2024, amounting to 28,351 businesses. Forty-two local authorities did not provide the Interior Ministry with information on the licensing status of businesses in their jurisdiction that year.
Englman said the problems affect existing business owners, people who want to open new businesses, and the public.
He recommended that all bodies involved work together to remove barriers blocking full implementation, saying business licenses help protect public health and safety and ensure compliance with the law.
The report also found that most local authorities have not prepared for climate change.
As of October 2025, 154 local authorities, around 60%, had not prepared a local climate adaptation plan and were not in the process of doing so.
Among authorities that responded to a comptroller questionnaire, 87% had not prepared a climate risk map or survey.
On municipal information systems, only 45 of 259 local authorities had completed joining the government cyber monitoring service by November 2025. Another 138 had not yet joined the process.
One of the starkest sections concerned Pal-Kal buildings, a construction method whose dangers became a national issue after the 2001 Versailles wedding hall disaster.
The report found that the dedicated Pal-Kal headquarters had not met for around six years and had not maintained a reliable, updated national database. Around 300 privately owned buildings, including event halls and commercial centers, had still not undergone initial identification checks.
None of the local authorities examined had submitted annual reports to the Pal-Kal headquarters as required since at least 2018. They also did not conduct the required annual engineering monitoring for Pal-Kal buildings under their responsibility, including school buildings.
Across the report, Englman’s message was clear: local authorities are the bodies residents meet first when the road is blocked, the social worker is overloaded, the business cannot get licensed, the building is unsafe, or the next storm hits.
The gaps, he found, are not abstract. They affect privacy, safety, welfare services, public transportation, housing, business owners, and the ability of local government to withstand the next emergency.