The Interim Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, headed by MK Avi Dichter (Likud), this week discussed the military ombudsman’s annual report for 2018, which was submitted by Acting IDF Ombudsman Brig. Gen. (res.) Eitan Dahan.
During the first part of the meeting, which was open to the press, Dahan discussed the report’s findings and said the average time it takes the IDF Ombudsman’s Office to resolve a complaint filed by a soldier or a soldier’s parent has continued to b cut down in 2018. On average, a complaint was resolved within 38 days, compared with an average of 41 days in 2017.
Committee Chairman MK Dichter lauded the improvement, but noted that 47 percent of the complaints that are filed are resolved after a month or more. The average time for resolving the soldiers’ complaints must be reduced, he said. “[A soldier or parent] who turns to you has already gone through a process before deciding to lodge a complaint, meaning he or she has waited much more than 30 days, or more, for a resolution,” MK Dichter said. “Would you agree to wait 30 days for an answer from any company, say a bank, after filing a complaint?”
The report states that over the course of 2018, the ombudsman’s office received 6,749 complaints from IDF soldiers or their parents, a slight decrease from the previous year, in which just over 7,000 complaints were filed. Of those, some 61% were found to be legitimate, justified issues. The others were found to be false or trivial.