I had to wait for 8 hours outside taking part in a Japanese style way of covering the news, "hariban"(http://www.j-prep.com/reference/word?sub=tru&ss=%E7%95%AA&type=vocab&dex=100&type=vocab&bid=1797940), which is like a lookout waiting for something to happen...
doing "hariban" with other members from different stations and papers...
Our target was the prosecutors' raid about a bid rigging case.
Unfortunately they did not appear at the scene and we were left with futility.
But with all the media doing "hariban", it's not an easy decision to abandon the sight.
Well staying out under the sun, I think I had enough suntans and I'm tired enough as 2 glasses of beer had knocked me out!
(article by Kyodo)
◆Farm ministry affiliate officials, others arrested over bid rigging
TOKYO, May 24 KYODO
Prosecutors on Thursday arrested two senior officials of the government-affiliated Japan Green Resources Agency (J-Green) and four officials from its contractors over their alleged involvement in rigging bids for public works ordered by the agency, investigative sources said.
The six are accused of having colluded with other bidders and of deciding the expected winners and bid prices prior to public bidding invited by J-Green for forest road construction consultancy work in 2005 and 2006, so restricting competition in violation of the Antimonopoly Act.
The four contractors are also suspected of gaining priority in securing such work in return for rehiring former government officials, as they are known to employ many former officials from J-Green, an independent administrative entity which is under the jurisdiction of the farm ministry, as well as the governmental Forestry Agency.
Those arrested by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office include Muneo Takagi, a 59-year-old executive director in charge of the forest project management department at J-Green, which is based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture.
The others are Tsuneo Shimooki, 56, head of the forest road planning division under Takagi's department, and one official each from the four contractors, including former Forestry Agency official Nobumori Hashioka, 63, and two former J-Green officials.
The four contractors are two Forestry Agency-supervised public-interest corporations -- Shinko Kosaikai and Japan Forest Engineering Consultants -- and two joint-stock companies -- K.K. Forestech and Katahira & Engineers Inc.
The arrests came after the prosecutors received a criminal complaint against the four contractors from the Fair Trade Commission, which has been investigating the alleged antitrust violation case.
The prosecutors also raided J-Green's head office and other related locations Thursday.
Senior J-Green officials allegedly designated winners before bids were received based on reports from its regional offices about their order plans and estimated contract prices, and also taking into account the contracts awarded the previous fiscal year to each bidder.
Having listed the winners on a ''score sheet,'' they conveyed their decision to the contractors through division chiefs at eight regional construction offices across Japan, according to the sources.
In line with the agency's decision, the four contractors are suspected of having colluded in rigging their bid prices, they said. The contractors won nearly 70 percent of J-Green tender orders over the past three years.
Such antitrust practices initiated by the government entities are believed to have continued for at least 10 years.
J-Green, which the government nominally spun off in 2003 as part of administrative reform, is promoting a 2,053-kilometer forest roads construction project that is two-thirds financed by central government subsidies, with the rest financed by prefectural governments.
Having completed 1,288 km of the project by fiscal 2006, which ended in March, J-Green has allocated 12.4 billion yen of forest project budgets for the project in fiscal 2007.
It is likely that government subsidies for forest road construction have been diverted to hire former government officials, said Nobuo Gohara, a former prosecutor and a Toin University of Yokohama Law School professor who is versed in bid-rigging cases.
All of the contractors except for Katahira have made political donations to Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Toshikatsu Matsuoka, a veteran lawmaker who has been criticized by opposition lawmakers for not providing a clear-cut account of expenditures to run his office.
After the arrests, the head of each of the four contractors issued an apology and pledged efforts to prevent bid-rigging from recurring as well as full cooperation with the investigation.
J-Green said it has fired arrested director Takagi and removed Shimooki from his post of division chief, effective Thursday.
Matsuoka said, ''The case should not have occurred and is extremely regrettable as it is not only a case of bid-rigging involving public works but also one initiated by the public sector in which a public entity placing orders was deeply involved.''
''As a supervisory authority, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry is really ashamed that the case resulted in a serious betrayal of public trust,'' he said. ''We hope to regain public trust as quickly as possible.''
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhira Shiozaki indicated separately that the farm ministry is considering taking action against J-Green, calling the case ''outrageous.''
Having openly investigated the case since it raided the offices belonging to J-Green and the contractors in October, the FTC is also considering filing a criminal complaint under the law for the prevention of collusive bidding initiated by government agencies and officials, the sources said.
Thursday's complaint on antitrust charges was the third since the competition policy watchdog was empowered to conduct raids under an amendment to the Antimonopoly Act last year.
The prosecutors began questioning agency employees at the head office and regional offices as well as senior officials of the contractors in mid-April.
As for political donations from J-Green contractors, Matsuoka told reporters earlier Thursday, ''I have received no donations in the past seven to 10 years or so (from such contractors). I have personally returned the money to entities which gave me donations.''
But a number of J-Green contractors gave a total of 8.5 million yen in political donations to Matsuoka's political fund control group among others over the 10 years through 2005, according to its political funds reports.
==Kyodo
0 comment:
Post a Comment