Regarding the issue of inappropriate practices in school facility construction contracts, a third-party committee of lawyers and experts announced verification results of the district’s contracts. They examined 1,642 contracts and confirmed violations of laws and district regulations, finding that contracts were intentionally split into smaller amounts to avoid competitive bidding requirements.
The district mayor stated, “We will conduct improvement discussions across all departments and work to restore trust.” The district plans to develop measures to prevent recurrence.
This issue emerged when it was discovered that among school facility construction projects ordered in fiscal year 2023, 145 contracts were divided to keep individual contract amounts below the 1.3 million yen threshold to avoid competitive bidding. Further investigation revealed additional inappropriate contracts, leading to the committee’s verification.
The report highlighted that at one elementary school, a 15.57 million yen construction project was divided into 12 separate contracts to circumvent competitive bidding requirements. The committee determined that all 1,642 construction and procurement contracts violated the principle of competitive bidding and constituted legal and regulatory violations.
As contributing factors, the report cited the long-standing fixed threshold of 1.3 million yen for discretionary contracts, which made it easy to exceed limits, along with insufficient awareness among staff about proper contracting procedures.
The report noted that while staff sometimes needed to expedite administrative procedures to meet residents’ requests, making this a complex issue, the report should serve as a guide for developing countermeasures – a challenge faced nationwide.
The report is available on the district’s website.
