More than a trillion yen earmarked for disaster relief in areas affected by the March 11, 2011, disaster went to projects other than those the money was intended for, including Japan’s so-called scientific whaling program, according to a new Board of Audit report.
More than a trillion yen earmarked for disaster relief in areas affected by the March 11, 2011, disaster went to projects other than those the money was intended for, including Japan’s so-called scientific whaling program, according to a new Board of Audit report.
"The rebuilding budget was financed through tax hikes on taxpayers," the Board of Audit report said. "The government agencies involved should therefore give appropriate consideration to disaster priorities. They must be held accountable and explain themselves."
The board examined government relief expenditures for fiscal 2011-2012. It said Oct. 31 that 23 percent of the projects audited, totaling 11 percent of the budget already spent, or 1.3 trillion yen ($13.2 billion), had nothing to do directly with the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami or the Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The most recent revelations are not the first time news of wasteful spending has been made public.
In response to revelations that some post-quake relief funds were diverted, the government issued new guidelines in November 2012 that stipulated projects not directly linked to the reconstruction effort, or in disaster-hit areas, are not eligible for the funding.
The government at the time halted 35 such projects totaling 16.8 billion yen. One of the projects halted included the anti-seismic retrofitting of government buildings outside the disaster area.
According to the board’s latest audit, a total of 19.9 trillion yen in fiscal 2011 and 2012 was allocated for disaster recovery. Using the new government guidelines, the board screened 1,401 rebuilding projects, totaling 15.2 trillion yen.
The results of the Board of Audit’s inspection showed 912 projects were directly linked to rebuilding efforts in disaster-hit areas. Another 163 projects fell partially within the government guidelines, including tsunami countermeasures and anti-seismic retrofitting of school buildings outside disaster areas.
The remaining 326 projects had no direct correlation to the affected communities, even if their objective was disaster mitigation, the Board of Audit said.
The 15.2 trillion yen covered by the audit did not include special tax allocations to local governments. And of that amount, 11.4 trillion yen had been spent by the end of fiscal 2012.
Among the most notable projects deemed "irrelevant" was the partial funding of the Institute of Cetacean Research, which engages in so-called scientific whaling. The farm ministry spent 2.19 billion yen in fiscal 2011, partly to subsidize the institute. Most of that money was used to offset a deficit at the ICR and to guard Japan's whaling vessels.
The ICR was struggling financially due to a drop in the whale harvest and partly from the need to hire patrol vessels to counter sabotage efforts by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-whaling group.
The Board of Audit dismissed the farm ministry's argument that the payments benefited the rebuilding efforts in Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture, which hosts an ICR facility.
Another project flagged was a labor ministry program to assist job seekers. It provided a 100,000 yen monthly allowance to people looking for jobs while receiving vocational training. It also subsidized private vocational schools and other institutions that train job seekers.
Of the total 1.23 billion yen spent in fiscal 2011 under that program, 970 million yen was used in 44 of Japan's 47 prefectures outside the hardest-hit prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima. The labor bureaus across Japan overseeing the program didn’t even ask the job seekers receiving the funds and training if they were survivors of the 2011 disaster.
Following the advisory from the Board of Audit, the labor ministry the last fiscal year stopped trying to tap into the rebuilding budget for funds.
(This article was compiled from reports by Motoki Kaneko and Takuya Kitazawa.)