Allegations over Secretary’s Salary: Swindling Public Money Is A Betrayal of The People

Editorial

15:41 JST, August 6, 2024

Many people must feel disgusted as the problem of “politics and money” has surfaced yet again. How can the growing distrust in politics be halted? The ruling and opposition parties bear a heavy responsibility.

Suspicion has arisen that Megumi Hirose, a House of Councillors lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, defrauded the government of public money through the salary for a state-paid secretary. She allegedly registered a person who did not actually work as her second state-paid secretary and took for herself several million yen in government money meant as pay for that secretary from the end of 2022 to the summer of 2023.

The Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office’s special investigation squad has searched Hirose’s office and other related locations on suspicion of fraud. Hirose has left the LDP.

The person registered as second state-paid secretary is the wife of Hirose’s first state-paid secretary and worked for an incorporated association in Iwate Prefecture. Hirose allegedly instructed the first secretary to give the second secretary’s salary to herself.

Hirose claims the second secretary was involved in such duties as driving Hirose to and from her destinations and doing clerical work in her electoral district on weekends. However, the special investigation squad believes that these duties are far from the workload of a secretary and Hirose tried to create an alibi to prevent the illegality from being pointed out.

If it is true that Hirose has defrauded the government of public money, this is a betrayal of the public. This is absolutely unforgivable. Moreover, Hirose is a lawyer and must have been readily aware of the illegality of her actions. She should decide on her own whether to resign as a Diet member.

In the past, many Diet members from both ruling and opposition parties have been exposed as having defrauded the government of public money via salaries for their secretaries. Kiyomi Tsujimoto, who was a member of the House of Representatives from the Social Democratic Party, resigned from the Diet in 2002 to take responsibility for doing so. She was arrested the following year and convicted.

At the time, it was very common in political circles for secretaries’ salaries to be transferred to the bank accounts of lawmakers’ offices or elsewhere, and lawmakers then misappropriated the money. To prevent a recurrence, the ruling and opposition parties amended the relevant law in 2004 to require that state-paid secretaries’ salaries be provided directly to the secretaries themselves.

The ruling and opposition parties need to take steps to close loopholes in the law.

There is no end to scandals involving Diet members. Manabu Horii, a lower house member of the LDP who was elected from the proportional representation bloc in Hokkaido, left the party last month after his facilities were searched by the special investigation squad over allegations that voters in Hokkaido were given condolence money in his name through his secretaries and others.

Mamoru Umetani, who was elected to the lower house from Niigata Constituency No. 6 and belongs to the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, was found in February this year to have distributed sake at a neighborhood association event in his constituency.

In the past, lawmakers have been discovered to have distributed condolence money or incense sets. Any politician should at least know that donations to voters are prohibited by the Public Offices Election Law.

The low awareness of compliance with the law among Diet members is too much to tolerate, including the case of hidden money by LDP factions. Both ruling and opposition parties should not only thoroughly educate Diet members, they should also take stern action against people who are found to have engaged in misconduct, such as rescinding their approval as official party candidates in elections and expelling them from the party.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Aug. 6, 2024)