Every annual report from the Board of Audit (BOA), an independent government body, makes dismal reading -- until you get to the bottom line. The latest says that 43 billion yen in taxpayer money was wasted and misused in fiscal 2003. That is the largest amount in 20 years. The report gives appalling examples of irregularities, such as preparing fake police-investigation receipts and paying travel expenses for fictitious trips.
Normally the BOA conducts inspections once a year for a given number of offices, which are notified of inspection schedules in advance. Seemingly endless irregularities suggest that something is wrong with the current inspection system. What is needed is a new system that makes surprise inspections the rule rather than the exception. The results of such unscheduled inspections should be published from time to time so that corrective action can be taken without delay.
It is also necessary to increase the number of inspectors. The current inspection staff, numbering 850, is too small to cover 34,000 offices throughout the country. This time around, the BOA inspected 2,700 offices, or just 8 percent of the total, and 41 percent of the central government offices. At the very least, all ministerial offices in Tokyo should be inspected each year.