Three Japanese defense officials at the center of a bid-rigging scandal were slapped with additional charges yesterday in connection with construction projects at two US military bases, officials said.
The projects at Sasebo and Iwakuni bases were worth ¥18 billion (US$152 million), Defense Facilities Administration Agency spokesman Akio Watai said.
Tokyo prosecutors charged two senior engineering officials at the facilities agency -- Mamoru Ikezawa and Takayoshi Kawano, both 57 -- and Takashige Matsuda, 53, the head of a separate government-affiliated organization, Watai said.
He said the three conspired with manufacturers in eight construction projects at two US bases -- five related to runway relocation and ground improvement at Iwakuni and two involving seawalls at Sasebo -- as well as a separate construction project at the defense facility agency's Ichigaya complex in Tokyo, in fiscal 2004 and 2005.
Japan is home to about 50,000 US troops under a bilateral security treaty.
Tokyo District Prosecutors' Office said in a statement that the officials leaked information to the eight construction companies -- many of them Japan's leading construction giants -- in advance so that they could place the most desirable bids.
Officials from eight companies -- Kajima Corp, Toa Corp, Tekken Corp, Taisei Corp, Obayashi Corp, Penta Ocean Construction Co, Shimizu Corp and Nissan Rinkai Construction Co -- also faced fresh charges in the case, the prosecutors said.
Public broadcaster NHK said that the three defense officials acknowledged that bid rigging for defense projects has lasted 40 years.
The officials, arrested in January, were charged last month with conspiring with manufacturers to rig bids to install air conditioning systems at defense facilities between November 2004 and March last year.
"We apologize to the people for causing the grave situation," Defense Facilities Administration Agency chief Iwao Kitahara said in a statement.
"We will do our utmost so that we can recover the public's trust as soon as possible," he added.
The case is the latest in a series of bid-rigging scandals to surface in recent months. Japan has long been criticized for the practice, widespread in public works projects, which virtually shuts out foreign bidders.
Last month, two former officials of the state-owned operator of Narita International Airport pleaded guilty to bid-rigging in electrical construction projects, according to news reports.
Iwakuni, home to a US air station, is about 700km southwest of Tokyo. Sasebo is on the southern main island of Kyushu and is a site of a major US naval base.
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS