The recent arrest of a former Fukushima governor shows that bid rigging involving local government heads and officials continues. Local governments must devise a new system for public-works projects that ensures transparency in the bidding process.
Former Fukushima Gov. Eisaku Sato was arrested on suspicion of receiving a bribe from a subcontractor of a 20.6 billion yen dam project. Mr. Sato and his younger brother are suspected of having rigged the bidding so that a joint venture led by a major construction firm would receive the order for the project.
The subcontractor, at the instruction of the construction firm, bought a piece of land from a firm run by the governor's brother at a cost higher than the market price. Investigators think that the difference between the price the firm paid and the market price was a bribe. The governor resigned in late September after his brother and a former head of the prefectural government's public-works department were arrested.