Japan Press Weekly

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2007 November 21 - 27 [SDF]

Nukaga helped construction firm win contract: former regional Defense Facilities Administration Bureau chief

A former defense official has revealed that Nukaga Fukushiro, Defense Agency director general at the time (now Finance Minister), helped a construction firm win a contract in bids for construction orders from the agency in 1999 and 2000.

The revelation was made to reporters by former Sendai Regional Defense Facilities Administration Bureau Chief Ota Nobumasa on November 20.

Last year, Ota, who asked to remain anonymous at the time, told Akahata how lawmakers representing defense-related interests are helping particular companies win defense contract awards. This is the first time that he made such a revelation by revealing his name.

Ota said that many politicians, including Nukaga and three other former Defense Agency directors general, have been involved in passing on contracts to particular contractors, bringing to light how they went after the defense contracts.

Ota was the regional Defense Facilities Administration Bureau chief from August 1999 to March 2001. During this period he kept records in his personal diary regarding how politicians helped particular firms win contract awards.

Showing the diary as evidence, he argued that Nukaga’s office pressured the bureau to favor particular contractors involved in bids for defense contracts. The following are some of the facts revealed by Ota:

- Nukaga twice asked Ota, on April 23, 1999 and March 2, 2000, via Ota’s staff, to favor a construction firm in Yamagata Prefecture in a bid for the bureau’s contract.

- On March 2, 2000, the Sendai Regional Defense Facilities Bureau received complaints from Nukaga’s office that Ota’s response was too slow. Nukaga’s office contacted Ota’s office via former Vice Defense Minister Moriya Takemasa (DA director general’s secretariat director-general at the time). In his diary on March 14, 2000, Ota kept details of a conversation he had with the contractor who, instructed by Nukaga’s secretary, visited the bureau.

- Due to its poor sales performance, the contract was not awarded to the firm in 1999. Then, Nukaga complained about this outcome. The technical councilor of the Defense Facilities Administration Agency visited Nukaga to explain the situation.

- While in office, Ota kept a list of “dietmembers and other politicians who helped particular firms win contract awards for defense construction projects.” The list, made by his staff, included 14 politicians, including Nukaga and three other former DA directors general.

- In late 1999, a lawmaker who had been a parliamentary vice-minister asked Ota to award a contractor in Akita Prefecture the contract. Of the 14 politicians on the list, at least three directly contacted Ota.

On November 15, former DA Vice Defense Director General Moriya Takemasa testified in a House of Councilors committee that a construction firm asked him how the firm can be included in the Defense Ministry’s list of contractors and that he referred the firm to a Defense Agency division.

On November 20, Nukaga said he denied his involvement in awarding a contract to the firm although he admitted to meeting the president of the construction firm. - Akahata, November 21, 2007