Treasury freezes Tel Aviv light rail tenders

Budgets have been frozen pending an examination of NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System’s agreement with Parson Brinckerhoff .
The Ministry of Finance has frozen all the tenders for the Tel Aviv light rail project, for fear that public money will be wasted. This follows an exchange of allegations between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Transport over NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd., which is responsible for running the project.
The Ministry of Finance has announced that NTA’s development budgets are frozen until approval is obtained from the exceptions committee at the ministry headed by Accountant General Michal Abadi-Boiangiu, who is responsible for implementation of the provisional state budget (one twelfth per month of the 2014 budget) until a new government is formed and a budget for 2015 is passed.
Three months ago, local media reported that NTA was about to sign an NIS 800 million agreement with Parson Brinckerhoff under an exemption from tender requirements, for PB to manage the light rail Red Line project.