The Chiba Prefectural Government reprimanded 2,245 employees Friday for billions of yen in accounting irregularities and said they will be forced to repay about 27 percent of the funds.
The irregularities add up to some ¥3.28 billion when combined with an additional ¥300 million in false orders recently uncovered, the prefecture said.
The prefecture fired four officials and filed a criminal complaint against three of them for embezzlement. In addition, Chiba Gov. Kensaku Morita was given a reprimand and a 30 percent pay cut for three months.
The punishments followed an internal investigation by the prefecture, which announced its results in September. The probe revealed that about ¥3 billion worth of irregular accounting had taken place in the five years up to fiscal 2007, with some ¥700 million recognized as damage to the prefecture.
When the prefecture subsequently went over the spending records for fiscal 2008, it found even more misappropriations, it said.
Prefectural employees will be required to make the repayments according to their positions.