What did we learn from the State Comptroller's report on work accidents in the construction industry?
Dec 28, 2022
By: Attorney Lior Akai
The State Comptroller's Office recently joined forces to combat workplace accidents in the construction industry as part of a comprehensive audit operation that spanned approximately 10 months of intensive activity, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Various aspects of the state's activity on the subject were examined, focusing on a number of relevant bodies:
· Registrar of Contractors - How does the Registrar of Contractors treat contractors who have committed safety violations?
· The Safety Administration – How does the Safety Administration enforce compliance with the safety regulations that apply to employers in the industry?
· Police investigation units - How effective are police investigation units in investigating relevant offenses regarding safety in the construction industry?
· The Accountant General - Does the Accountant General act effectively against contractors who have violated safety regulations?
· Implementation of the Comptroller's Report - Have deficiencies noted in the previous State Comptroller's report from 2018 been corrected?
The audit period has ended, the data has been processed, and the State Comptroller published a comprehensive report on the matter in April 2022. As an insurance agency that has been involved in construction insurance for over 30 years, and which has made it its mission to place a permanent spotlight on the issue of safety in the industry, we saw fit to present to you the main findings from the Comptroller's report. Including a brief overview of the Comptroller's recommendations for further handling of this difficult phenomenon.
By: Attorney Lior Akai
The State Comptroller's Office recently joined forces to combat workplace accidents in the construction industry as part of a comprehensive audit operation that spanned approximately 10 months of intensive activity, both qualitatively and quantitatively. Various aspects of the state's activity on the subject were examined, focusing on a number of relevant bodies:
· Registrar of Contractors - How does the Registrar of Contractors treat contractors who have committed safety violations?
· The Safety Administration – How does the Safety Administration enforce compliance with the safety regulations that apply to employers in the industry?
· Police investigation units - How effective are police investigation units in investigating relevant offenses regarding safety in the construction industry?
· The Accountant General - Does the Accountant General act effectively against contractors who have violated safety regulations?
· Implementation of the Comptroller's Report - Have deficiencies noted in the previous State Comptroller's report from 2018 been corrected?
The audit period has ended, the data has been processed, and the State Comptroller published a comprehensive report on the matter in April 2022. As an insurance agency that has been involved in construction insurance for over 30 years, and which has made it its mission to place a permanent spotlight on the issue of safety in the industry, we saw fit to present to you the main findings from the Comptroller's report. Including a brief overview of the Comptroller's recommendations for further handling of this difficult phenomenon.
The Safety Administration's staffing has increased but is still insufficient – The auditor notes that there has been an increase in the number of staffed positions in the Safety Administration in the period between January 2019 and January 2021. From 95 staffed positions to 148 staffed positions. However, it was emphasized that there are still approximately 30 positions that have not been staffed despite being specified in the standard and 7 positions that were supposed to be added but were not added (despite a 2018 agreement with the Ministry of Finance).
There is no mechanism for monitoring notices to correct construction defects – as is known, the inspector on behalf of the Safety Director may refrain from issuing an order and suffice with notifying the employer of a repair that needs to be repaired. The State Comptroller found that there is no clear mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the above notices (including reminders or characterization of alerts in the computer system).
Increase in the number of orders – The auditor found a significant increase in the number of orders issued by the Safety Administration against employers on construction sites. For example, approximately 5,800 orders in 2020 compared to only about 900 in 2017 and an increase of about 43% in work stoppage orders during the same period. These figures further emphasize the need to improve monitoring to correct deficiencies.
Financial sanctions – The State Comptroller notes that although the fight against occupational accidents is a national task, there has been no effective increase in the scope of financial sanctions imposed by the Safety Administration on contractors. The number of sanctions in 2020 was the same as in 2018, and in 2019 there was even a decrease of about 75%. The Comptroller's report indicates that about 20% of contractors in Israel "accumulated" between three and ten financial sanctions in the period between 2018 and 2020.
Collecting financial sanctions from contractors – A financial sanction is not effective without its collection. The State Comptroller's report indicates that the Safety Administration managed to collect less than a third of the financial sanctions imposed on contractors between 2018 and 2020. More than 70% of the sanctions imposed are still "in the bureaucratic corridors" being processed by the administration, which tracks them - among other things - manually in Excel spreadsheets.
Criminal aspects – The auditor criticizes the fact that by the end of 2021 there was no activity at all of a dedicated criminal investigations unit in the Safety Administration. This is despite the attitude of many professionals that the activity of such a unit is critical. Despite the high volume of violations at the sites, between 2018 and 2020, fewer than 30 investigations were opened.
Need to improve lessons learned processes – The auditor notes that although the Safety Administration holds important data for dealing with work accidents on construction sites in Israel, no data has been collected that would allow for a fruitful process of learning lessons. The auditor emphasizes, for example, that the Safety Administration does publish data on fatal work accidents in the annual report, but does not collect data on other accidents and serious (more or less) cases of "near misses." Similarly, the police unit's investigations into these issues (the PLA faction) are not transferred for learning and assimilation.
Suspension of Contractors – The procedure for suspending contractors from contracting with government ministries following safety violations does not appear to be having the desired effect. According to the State Comptroller's inspections, out of 20 cases that were referred to the Accountant General, suspension processes were initiated in only four of them, and even here three were frozen for "reexamination."
The main findings in numbers
What's next? The State Comptroller included in the report a series of recommendations for improving the handling of the phenomenon of work accidents in the construction industry in Israel. Among the key steps mentioned in the report are, for example:
· Completing gaps in standards in the Safety Administration (including allocating and staffing approximately 17 additional positions).
· Systematic monitoring of receipt of notifications regarding construction defects , recommended using computer systems.
· Improving processes for transferring overdue sanctions funds to the Fines Collection Center (including automating the process).
· Completing the steps required for the effective operation of the Investigations Unit, which will conduct criminal investigations to the required standard and will engage in criminal enforcement on an ongoing basis, including filing indictments in appropriate cases.
· Enforcing the obligation to install scaffolding in accordance with the standard , as well as working in collaboration with the Standards Institute of Israel to promote proper examination of additional scaffolding models.
· Consolidation of insights from the investigative unit (PLS) by the Safety Administration to draw lessons, including recommendations and their implementation.
· Expanding lessons learned processes to include non-fatal accidents and "near miss" cases.
· Reexamination to streamline the procedure for suspending contractors by the Ministry of Finance . Including preventing engagement with government ministries for accumulating safety violations.
· Examining the possibility of expanding the sanction of suspending contractors prone to disaster to also include contracting with additional entities such as local authorities, local authority corporations, government companies, and more.
Recommendations for further action
In conclusion,
As an insurance agency that regularly assists its clients with the issue of work accidents, and as a business that has set itself the goal of covering this tragic issue on every platform, we see great importance in giving expression to the State Comptroller's report.
This is an extremely important report based on one of the most comprehensive and high-quality examinations conducted on the subject in recent years. We have no doubt that even if only some of the recommendations are implemented, and of course if all of them are addressed de facto, this will make a significant contribution to the national effort to reduce work accidents in the construction industry. This is about human lives and a beautiful one hour ago.
As an insurance agency that regularly assists its clients with the issue of work accidents, and as a business that has set itself the goal of covering this tragic issue on every platform, we see great importance in giving expression to the State Comptroller's report.
This is an extremely important report based on one of the most comprehensive and high-quality examinations conducted on the subject in recent years. We have no doubt that even if only some of the recommendations are implemented, and of course if all of them are addressed de facto, this will make a significant contribution to the national effort to reduce work accidents in the construction industry. This is about human lives and a beautiful one hour ago.
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