OSAKA -- The Osaka Prefectural Government announced Friday that its senior officials will return 1.32 billion yen in taxpayers' money misused by prefectural employees between 1994 and 1997 over a five-year span beginning next month.
About 300 high-ranking officials including Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama will also have their salaries reduced after the prefectural assembly approves the administrative punishment at a session that starts next week.
According to the scheme, 990 officials at managerial posts will return 1 billion yen within five years. The rest of the misused funds will be collected from other officials and former local government workers.
Taking responsibility for the misuse, the governor will cut his monthly salary by 10 percent for 14 months, to 1.24 million yen from 1.38 million yen. Other senior officials responsible for the fund misuse will also lose 10 percent of their monthly wages for one month to five months.
"I sincerely apologize for the long-term misuse of taxpayers' money," Yokoyama said. "I'm confident that a scandal like this will never happen again. We will draw up preventive measures and make our utmost efforts to regain trust from the public."
Prefecture officials misused taxpayers' money by allocating funds to pay for fabricated bills from hotels, restaurants and other businesses and by pooling funds for other purposes. The scandal first came to light last spring.