Blistering Audit Blames Israeli Universities for Hiding Multibillion-Dollar Deficits

by E Wayne Ross on March 23, 2009

The Chronicle News Blog: Blistering Audit Blames Israeli Universities for Hiding Multibillion-Dollar Deficits

Jerusalem — Israel’s universities have been accused of hiding huge budget deficits and of fiscal mismanagement in a scathing report by the country’s state comptroller, who oversees public institutions.

The official, Micha Lindenstrauss, said the country’s publicly financed universities ran up a deficit of 17.9 billion shekels (nearly $4.5-billion) last year but reported a deficit of only 1.59 billion shekels (about $400-million).