Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2020 October 14 - 20 [POLITICS]

JCP in Fukuoka: Staffing agency Pasona should pay the city back fee of 1 billion yen for corona-related projects

More than 1,000 Fukuoka City government workers were mobilized to help Japan’s leading staffing agency Pasona, whose chairperson Takenaka Heizo is Prime Minister Suga’s political brain, carry out corona-related projects commissioned by the city for one billion yen.

This was recently revealed through questioning by the Japanese Communist Party in the city assembly.

The projects in question are the state special program to provide 100,000 yen each to everyone in Japan and the city government’s program to support people in need.

JCP assemblyperson Nakayama Ikumi, who heads the JCP city assemblymembers’ group, on October 7 at an assembly meeting grilled the city government about a document issued by the head of the civil affairs section which deals with the special cash benefit scheme. In the document, the official asked other section chiefs for cooperation in sending their staff to Pasona because the company’s handling of applications for the special benefit was severely delayed due to a lack of personnel.

In the assembly meeting, a city government official said in response to the JCP’s question that the number of city employees sent to Pasona stood at 577 and added that the city paid them overtime amounting to 3.55 million yen.

Nakayama stated that the results of a JCP investigation indicated that the number of dispatched city employees exceeded 1,000. He continued to point out that in another outsourced program, 654 city workers were dispatched to the staffing agency.

Nakayama said that Pasona failed to provide proper service in the commissioned projects, which constitutes a breach of contract. He urged Mayor Takashima Soichiro to claim a full refund of the amount paid to Pasona. His request, however, was rejected by the mayor.

The JCP lawmaker criticized the mayor for wasting a huge amount of taxpayers’ money through a sloppy contract with Pasona as well as for allegedly violating the Local Public Service Act.

Akahata made an inquiry to Pasona about this matter, but received no reply as of October 18.

Fukuoka City Mayor Takashima and Pasona Chairperson Takenaka who also serves as a member of the Council on National Strategic Special Zones, PM Suga’s advisory panel, met with each other when a Council meeting was held in the city.