The head of the Hokkaido Prefectural Police admitted Friday that a police station in the city of Asahikawa had "inappropriately executed" its budget in 1995 and 1997.
Chief Katsuharu Ashikari's admission, which came during a meeting of the General Affairs Committee of the Hokkaido Prefectural Assembly, was the first time Hokkaido police have acknowledged there were improprieties in its accounting methods.
The force has been under fire since allegations surfaced in late November that money allocated for use as rewards for people who contributed to investigations was instead being used to create slush funds. Suspicions were aroused when an apparent copy of the Asahikawa Chuo Police Station accounts was leaked.
Hokkaido police set up an in-house probe after the prefecture's auditors said the allegations "left room for doubt."