The Board of Audit has found that government offices and central government-funded corporations improperly spent or handled ¥236.45 billion in public money in 717 cases in fiscal 2008 — a record amount and nearly double the ¥125.36 billion in fiscal 2007. Some ¥12.3 billion in 593 cases was spent in violation of laws or regulations and some ¥13.1 billion in 481 cases still remained in the form of credits that have to be retrieved.
In its survey, the board examined funds set up by public-service corporations that receive subsidies from the central government's ministries and agencies. As of fiscal 2008's end, 68 such corporations held 110 funds with a total value of ¥912 billion. About 90 percent of the funds were established with subsidies from three ministries — the farm and fisheries ministry, the infrastructure and transport ministry, and the trade and industry ministry.
Having determined that about ¥39.1 billion in funds under the jurisdiction of the trade and industry ministry and about ¥35.1 billion in funds under the jurisdiction of the farm and fisheries ministry were not used efficiently, the board urged the two ministries to return the money to state coffers.
Central government offices and public-service corporations have such special relationship that as of April 2008, 9,900 former central government employees had landed jobs at the latter. The board also surveyed 26 prefectural governments and 15 cities and found that they had committed accounting irregularities amounting to ¥3.2 billion. In fiscal 2007, the board detected accounting irregularities amounting to ¥1.1 billion in 12 prefectural governments.
The board announced its findings as the Government Revitalization Unit started the work of scrutinizing some 200 projects included in fiscal 2010 budgetary requests to pinpoint and exclude wasteful projects. The central government should beef up board personnel and have central and local government offices strengthen internal control. All budgets must be scrutinized closely.