Likud minister, already under fire for evasiveness on how she caught COVID, has cost taxpayer thousands by ‘mixing private and public’ use of resources, report says; she denies it
Likud minister Gila Gamliel, already facing calls for her dismissal for violating coronavirus lockdown rules and misleading the Health Ministry about doing so, was accused in a Saturday night TV probe of “mixing the private and the public” in terms of her use of taxpayers’ money and official resources.
Gamliel upgraded to one of New York’s most expensive hotels at an extra cost to the public purse of thousands of dollars, claiming an allergic reaction to the hotel where she was supposed to stay; was accompanied by five members of her family on a six-day working visit to Austria in which she did relatively little official work; and has used her government car and driver to deliver her kids to school, Channel 12 reported.
Gamliel, Israel’s minister for environmental protection, said it was unfortunate that the TV station had chosen to attack her with old allegations when she was still battling her COVID-19 infection, and denied any wrongdoing.