Israel's state comptroller, Joseph Shapira, released a report on Tuesday criticizing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, for excessive spending of public funds on their residences. "Public trust in government institutions is a cornerstone of every democracy," he wrote. "One would expect an elected public official to demonstrate extra sensitivity... and serve as an exemplary model of saving public funds."
The report went into detail about money spent at the official prime minister's residence in Jerusalem and the Netanyahu's private home in Caesarea. In 2009, the year Netanyahu took office, expenses at both residences were at $500,000 a year, Shapira found, and that doubled by 2011 before going down to roughly $600,000 in 2013. Between 2009 and 2013, a monthly average of $20,000 was spent on cleaning both residences, the Netanyahus spent more than $100 a day on personal grooming, and $20,000 a year was spent delivering meals, despite having a chef on staff, the Los Angeles Times reports. These expenses were "not compatible with the basic principles of proportionality, reasonability, economy, and efficiency," Shapira wrote.
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