Israeli army committed serious violations and corruption estimated at billions of dollars, claimed a Hebrew economic newspaper and two former Israeli generals.
The Marker reported that General Yaakov Orr and General Yitzhak Barik also accused the State Comptroller, Matanyahu Englman, a close associate of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, of corruption.
Englman refused to receive the generals to review the documents backing their accusations.
Orr was the former director of the security department in the State Comptroller's Office, and Barik served as director of soldiers' complaints in the army.
They said they had documents proving the corruption and misuse of army funds.
During an interview with Radio 103FM in Tel Aviv, the two indicated that they informed Englman of their findings, and the latter set a date for their meeting, which he later canceled. They decided to go public with their information after Englman asked them to send a written report about the issue, saying he was trying to evade the case.
The Israeli army gradually became a tool in the hands of different groups working to achieve their goals, according to Barik, adding that a large number of senior army officers who, after being discharged, are employed by lobby groups.
The groups are employed by private companies that sell equipment to the army.
The editor-in-chief, Guy Rolnik, accused the high command of the Israeli army and its lobby of working in laundering tens of billions of shekels the army stole from the state treasury.
Rolnik noted that Security Minister Benny Gantz, former army chief of staff, has clear advantages despite the increases in the security budget.
He accused Gantz of granting taxpayers' money to retired army officials, residents of Hakirya, the headquarters of the Ministry of Defense and Defense in Tel Aviv, and all the wealthy people residing in Kaplan Street.
Rolnik indicated that the increase in the allocations for retirees was done discretely and illegally, without a special budget.
He estimated total stolen money at more than one billion shekels annually, pointing out that, on average, a military retiree receives a severance package of 8 million shekels, five times that of civilians.
