Gifu scandal shows need for reform
(From The Japan Times August 27 issue)

岐阜県庁の裏金問題

    A monthlong internal examination has found that various sections of the Gifu government had squirreled away as much as ¥466 million in fiscal 1994. Prefectural government workers generated the funds by claiming compensation from prefectural coffers for fictitious business trips, taxi fares, and official meetings accompanied by wining and dining. The money "saved" was then used for purposes such as entertaining public servants from other organizations, parties for high-ranking prefectural government officials and monetary offerings for weddings and funerals of prefectural government workers.

    The egregious aspect of the existence of these slush funds is that high-ranking officials were aware of them and were actively involved in hiding them. Tsuneo Morimoto, a former bureaucrat of the now-defunct Home Affairs Ministry, who served as Gifu vice governor from 1996 to 1999 (now a Liberal-Democratic Party member of the Upper House), instructed various sections of the prefectural government to transfer some of the funds into bank accounts of the prefectural government workers' union, as it was feared that a large-scale organizational shakeup in the prefectural government, scheduled for fiscal 1999, might lead to disclosure of the funds.

    A similar move was made in fiscal 2001, ahead of the introduction the following year of a ceiling on the deposit amounts guaranteed if a bank went bankrupt. The process smacks of collusive relations between high-ranking officials and union members.

    The dubious practice involving off-the-book funds started while Taku Kajiwara was governor of Gifu Prefecture. Serving four terms (16 years) after being elected in 1989, he was known for actively pushing financial reform. At first he denied having been aware of the existence of the off-the-book money. He later admitted that he learned of the practice in 1989, but he insisted that he had had no knowledge of where the money was kept or moved. He denied Morimoto's allegation that he had approved a decision not to publicly acknowledge the existence of the secret money.

    Around 1995, the issue of public servants wining and dining other public servants came to the fore. According to a 1997 study of off-the-book funds by a Nagoya-based liaison organization of citizens' groups monitoring irregularities involving public servants, instances of questionable payments totaling ¥43.66 billion had been detected in 25 prefectural governments. When the organization inquired, it was told that the Gifu government had no intention of carrying out an investigation of whether prefectural government sections maintained secret funds. Former Gov. Kajiwara said recently that he thought at the time that the problem of off-the-book money had already been solved, adding that there was no excuse for his poor judgment.

    Gifu's case shows how serious and widespread the practice may be. Even the secretariat of the prefecture's audit committee and the revenue and expenditure management department were among the sections engaged in keeping slush funds. The internal scrutiny report says that several prefectural government workers, not knowing what to do with one cache of secret money, burned or discarded as garbage a total of ¥5 million.

    Of the ¥256 million moved to the union's bank accounts, about ¥100 million was used as loans to union members or for wining and dining expenses. At present, off-the-book money amounts to ¥265 million — part of it held in the union's bank accounts and the rest held by different sections of the prefectural government. The report concluded that the union and various sections of the prefectural government had used about ¥200 million of the secret money.

    The anger expressed by citizens of Gifu Prefecture is not surprising. The prefectural government has received nearly 3,000 protests in the form of e-mail messages and telephone calls. Legally empowered authorities should be mobilized to check the dubious use of public money by the central and local governments. What is more important is to step up efforts to create an atmosphere and mechanism in public offices that will not tolerate a lax attitude toward the use of tax money.

The Japan Times Weekly: September 2, 2006
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    県庁の内部調査によれば、1994年度までに各部署が計4億6600万円の裏金をつくっていたという。職員が請求した架空の出張旅費、タクシー代、食糧費が裏金として秘匿され、「官官接待」、幹部の私的飲食、職員の慶弔費などに使われていた。

    県幹部は裏金の存在を認識していたばかりでなく、その秘匿工作に関与していた。99年度の県の組織再編前と、金融機関のペイオフ 一部解禁前の01年度に、問題が表面化しないように、県幹部の指示で裏金が職員組合の口座に集約された。県幹部と組合員の癒着は明らかである。

    裏金づくりは、1989年から4期16年を務めた梶原拓前知事時代に始まったという。

    1995年ごろ、全国の地方自治体の裏金問題が表面化したが、岐阜県庁は名古屋の市民団体連絡会議の問い合わせに対し、裏金問題について調査する意向はないと答えている。

    岐阜県の監査委員会事務局や、出納事務局まで裏金づくりに関与していた。内部調査によれば、職員は余った裏金の処分に困り、500万円の現金を燃やしたり、ゴミとして廃棄された。2億円の裏金が流用され、現在、裏金として2億6500万円が組合と各部署の口座に残っているという。

    岐阜県民の怒りは当然である。県庁に届いた抗議の電子メール、電話は3000件に上った。

    公金の不正使用を調査する権限を特別監査機関に与え、中央政府、地方自治体の裏金問題を調査すべきだ。 より重要なことは、公務員に公金使用に関する規律の緩みを許さない雰囲気を作ることだ。