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DA encouraged bid-rigging

The Defense Agency (DA) has instructed its officials to avoid awarding contracts for construction projects through bidding at 100 percent of the upper limit of the price set by the orderer.

At the February 14 House of Representatives Budget Committee meeting, Japanese Communist Party member Kasai Akira showed a document, dated July 23, 2004, about what to do with contracts awarded at 100 percent of the upper limit of the price.

Citing that in 2002, 2,006 contracts for construction projects were awarded at 100 percent of the upper limit of the price set by the DA, the document pointed out that it "raises doubts that bids were rigged." It reported that on May 6, 2004, the DA sent an instruction to its officials to "make an effort to prevent the approximate price from being leaked."

Kasai said, "The document indicates that the DA ordered its officials to do their utmost to avoid the successful bidding price to be at 100 percent of the upper limit of the price set by the Agency," pointing out that such an instruction encouraged the bid-rigging schemes involving companies and bureaucrats at the Defense Facilities Administration Agency (DFAA).

Kasai criticized Defense Agency Director General Nukaga Fukushiro for refusing to recognize the DA's responsibility for the bid-rigging scandal involving the DFAA and trying to settle the issue by merging the DFAA into the DA.
- Akahata, February 15, 2006