54 B. Yen of Japan Tax Money Wasted in FY 2024

Tokyo, Nov. 5 (Jiji Press)–Wasteful and ineffective use of taxpayer money by the Japanese government in fiscal 2024 totaled about 54,081 million yen in 319 projects, according to a report the Board of Audit of Japan submitted to Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Wednesday. Both figures were lower than those of the preceding year. Of the total cases for fiscal 2024, which ended in March this year, 271, involving over 8.6 billion yen, were related to law violations or improper budget execution. While the fiscal 2023 audit of the government focused on projects linked to COVID-19, the board mainly inspected a wide range of projects, including those aimed at ensuring people’s safety and related to the defense and digital fields, for fiscal 2024. Yuhei Harada, chief of the board, told a press conference, “With restoring fiscal soundness being a major challenge for the government, we’ll continue strict and fair audits of various administrative and fiscal projects funded by taxpayer money.” The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry had the worst single case of taxpayer money being wasted or used ineffectively, with the amount totaling about 20,365 million yen. The funds for subsidies provided by the affiliated Small and Medium Enterprise Agency to the Japan Federation of Credit Guarantee Corporations to aid fundraising at small firms impacted by the March 2011 powerful earthquake and tsunami have not been utilized effectively, the board said. The ministry was also the biggest taxpayer money waster within the government, misspending some 22,058 million yen in total. The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry came second, with around 3,752 million yen, followed by the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry, with about 1,963 million yen. The board also said that there were 290 locations with landslide risks along expressways, calling on three expressway operators to take countermeasures. Amid heightened cybersecurity risks, the board called for improvements to be made for 58 information systems of 12 administrative agencies that were found to lack measures against vulnerabilities. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]