November 10, 2018

Wasteful and faulty use of taxpayers’ money by government ministries and agencies in fiscal 2017 totaled 115.6 billion yen, exceeding the 100 billion yen mark for the first time since 2015. This was shown in a report on audit results submitted by the Board of Audit to Prime Minister Abe Shinzo on November 9.

According to the audit report, among the ministries, the Defense Ministry was the largest tax-eater, pouring 64 billion yen down the drain last year. The ministry spent most of the money, 61.6 billion yen, under the category of "equipment management".

This year’s report turned a critical eye on the government spending of 801.1 billion yen as of the end of 2017 for 286 projects related to the 2020 Olympics and Paralympic Games. In this year’s report, the accounting watchdog stated that it is continuing its audit of the 800 million yen discount on the national land sale to the “Moritomo” school corporation. The board in its report last year recognized such a huge discount as “inappropriate”.

The number of cases which the 2018 board’s report acknowledged as “wasteful spending” stood at 374, the lowest in the past decade. Of them, 292, or 7.5 billion yen, was spent in violation of laws and for improper purposes.

Past related article:
> Board of Audit: Finance Ministry’s 90% discount on land deal for Moritomo inappropriate [November 22, 2017]