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Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Tuesday ordered cabinet ministers to make sure that public funds allocated to reconstruction of the disaster-hit Tohoku region is used for that purpose.
Noda's order comes following criticism that some of the reconstruction funds have been allocated instead to unrelated projects such as building infrastructure in other areas and to support efforts to fight anti-whaling activists (which got 2.4 billion yen), among others.
Over the next five years, 19 trillion yen -- much of it to come from tax increases -- has been earmarked for reconstruction work
Reconstruction Minister Tatsuo Hirano and Finance Minister Koriki Jojima said they will carefully scrutinize each project in the disaster-hit region, for which public funds have been allocated.
© Japan Today
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plasticmonkey
And why didn't they do this from the beginning?
The 'scrutiny' will stop as soon as the news media get tired of the story.
warispeace
Sure they will. Just as they carefully scrutinized TEPCO and all the other construction projects over the years that have indebted future generations.
minello7
"support efforts to fight anti-whaling activists (which got 2.4 billion yen)" someone please tell me this is a misprint. And how did this money ever end up with these people. When are people going to wake up and start prosecuting these officials who misappropriate public funds. All public accounts should be published yearly and available to the general public in the city halls across the country.( I don't know if they do that already).The "public purse"thats what government money is, it means just that. Not to be mistaken for free money to be distributed amongst cronies of those local or senior officials.
gogogo
Finally! The money is being thrown all over the place in unrelated stuff, yet people are still living in temp housing!!!!
smithinjapan
"Noda’s order comes following criticism that some of the reconstruction funds have been allocated instead to unrelated projects such as building infrastructure in other areas and to support efforts to fight anti-whaling activists (which got 2.4 billion yen), among others."
Thank the gods common sense is finally prevailing -- or at least being forced to be acknowledged through political pressure! We'll probably just hear a bunch of "hai! Hai!"s from the people being told before they go back to misusing the funds, but at least it's being admitted.