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▼ Abe Orders Measures to Prevent Mishandling of Public Documents
- Category:Event
TOKYO - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday instructed his ministers to draw up measures to prevent any further improper handling of official documents following a series of scandals that have damaged public confidence in the government.
"To secure proper management of public documents, the government will come together to thoroughly conduct a necessary review," Abe said at a meeting of relevant ministers, stressing the need to "sincerely reflect on" the scandals, which involved the falsification and coverup of documents by ministries.
The instruction came a day after the Finance Ministry released the results of its internal investigation into the falsification of documents on the heavily discounted 2016 sale of a plot of state land in Osaka Prefecture to Moritomo Gakuen, a school operator with ties to Abe's wife Akie.
Abe also urged the ministers to make efforts to improve government officials' compliance over handling state documents and promote the use of electronic systems to record document rewriting and prevent falsification.
Hiroshi Kajiyama, minister in charge of regulatory reform, said in a press conference that the government will interview officials of the finance and defense ministries, both of which have been embroiled in the scandals, and draw up countermeasures next month.
Finance Minister Taro Aso said he will voluntarily return part of his salary to take responsibility for the issue, while the ministry said it is punishing 20 officials, including former senior bureaucrat Nobuhisa Sagawa, who has been recognized as having "set the direction" of the document tampering.
The Abe administration has also been under fire due to the coverup of activity logs for Ground Self-Defense Force troops in Iraq between 2004 and 2006. The Defense Ministry said it found the records after having claimed they had been discarded.
In the outcome of its internal probe released last month, the ministry cited insufficient communication among officials involved as one of the causes of the coverup, but stopped short of concluding the GSDF had systemically concealed the documents. It reprimanded a total of 17 people over the case.
The government is considering establishing a new post in the Cabinet Office to oversee how ministries and agencies manage their documents, while also setting up a special section at each government office to handle the issue, sources close to the matter said.
It also plans to clarify in its guideline that document falsification could be subject to disciplinary action, they said.
© KYODO
"To secure proper management of public documents, the government will come together to thoroughly conduct a necessary review," Abe said at a meeting of relevant ministers, stressing the need to "sincerely reflect on" the scandals, which involved the falsification and coverup of documents by ministries.
The instruction came a day after the Finance Ministry released the results of its internal investigation into the falsification of documents on the heavily discounted 2016 sale of a plot of state land in Osaka Prefecture to Moritomo Gakuen, a school operator with ties to Abe's wife Akie.
Abe also urged the ministers to make efforts to improve government officials' compliance over handling state documents and promote the use of electronic systems to record document rewriting and prevent falsification.
Hiroshi Kajiyama, minister in charge of regulatory reform, said in a press conference that the government will interview officials of the finance and defense ministries, both of which have been embroiled in the scandals, and draw up countermeasures next month.
Finance Minister Taro Aso said he will voluntarily return part of his salary to take responsibility for the issue, while the ministry said it is punishing 20 officials, including former senior bureaucrat Nobuhisa Sagawa, who has been recognized as having "set the direction" of the document tampering.
The Abe administration has also been under fire due to the coverup of activity logs for Ground Self-Defense Force troops in Iraq between 2004 and 2006. The Defense Ministry said it found the records after having claimed they had been discarded.
In the outcome of its internal probe released last month, the ministry cited insufficient communication among officials involved as one of the causes of the coverup, but stopped short of concluding the GSDF had systemically concealed the documents. It reprimanded a total of 17 people over the case.
The government is considering establishing a new post in the Cabinet Office to oversee how ministries and agencies manage their documents, while also setting up a special section at each government office to handle the issue, sources close to the matter said.
It also plans to clarify in its guideline that document falsification could be subject to disciplinary action, they said.
© KYODO
- June 6, 2018
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