Japan Press Weekly

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2017 August 16 - 22 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Pushed by Tokyo JCP’s demand, metropolitan gov’t strengthens oversight of bidding

In response to a proposal from the Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly Members’ Group, the metropolitan government decided to tighten monitoring of bid-rigging in public works contracts.

Regarding the bids of public works projects for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games and the new Toyosu wholesale market buildings, there were many cases where a joint venture group of major construction companies was the only bidder and the ratio of the winning bid to the estimated cost was 99 percent or more.

JCP Tokyo Assembly members repeatedly raised questions of bid rigging allegations at assembly meetings and demanded drastic improvements of the bid monitoring system. JCP lawmakers Izumi Naomi and Ozaki Ayako pointed out that former metropolitan government officials obtained the post of chairperson of the bid oversight committee in turns. The JCP assembly members criticized the committee for having neglected to examine dubious public works contracts in which, for example, the bid ratio related to anticipated cost was very high.

The metropolitan government revised an installation outline and operational guidelines of the committee last month. One of the main amendments was to prohibit former metropolitan government officials from becoming a member of the committee. Another was to oblige the committee to investigate all cases in which only one company or group of companies made a bid or the winning bid was very close to the estimated cost.

Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko in December last year at the plenary session said that the bid oversight committee members, including the chairperson, should be chosen from academic experts who are not former metropolitan government officials in order to avoid being suspected of an unfair selection of committee members.