Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said Friday she will return 50 percent of one month's salary, or 250,000 yen, to the government to take responsibility for the latest scandal involving a former ministry official in a fraud case.

The ministry on Thursday fired Akio Asakawa, 56, who handled logistics work for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Osaka in 1995, after he was indicted for allegedly padding hotel bills and defrauding the government out of public money.

Tanaka receives 508,840 yen as salary and allowance as foreign minister. She also earns a monthly allowance of nearly 1.38 million yen as a Diet member.

"We must proceed with ministry reform and completely cut the root of money-related wrongdoing," Tanaka told a regular news conference in the morning.

She revealed that a pool of funds made through illicit means at each ministry section was found to total more than 20 million yen.

The ministry is now investigating those funds, which had long been used to pay for internal staff parties.

"(Senior officials) were telling me that they could pay back that amount, but it seems like there is more," Tanaka said.

Asakawa became the fifth official to be fired from the ministry this year for misuse of funds.

Auditors concerned

The Board of Audit has asked Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka to improve the government's handling of discretionary diplomatic funds in the wake of funds-misuse scandals linked to the so-called secret funds. The board submitted a report Thursday calling for the two to take steps to clearly delineate the roles of the Cabinet secretariat and the Foreign Ministry when paying for overseas prime ministerial trips, board officials said.

The board also called on the Cabinet secretariat to conduct regular in-house inspections into how the funds are being used, they added.

It is only the second time the audit board has made a request to the prime minister over an accounting issue. The first was in 1954.

The audit board may face public criticism for coming up with a report that fails to chart the flow of money from the Foreign Ministry to the Cabinet Secretariat.

The fraud was not detected because the payment was made from one of the most secret funds of the Cabinet Secretariat, the board said.