A government nuclear institute on Tuesday defended hot revelations that it had misappropriated 25 billion yen in taxpayers' money set aside for research and development.
A Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute (JNC) executive stated that the use of public money to cover personnel and other expenses was above-board -- even though it clearly breaks government rules.
"The use of funds set aside for projects to cover personnel expenses is appropriate. It doesn't constitute misappropriation. However, we'll investigate how we've used personnel expenses," Nukio Kiyono, an institute board member, said.
The government has also ordered a probe into the pricey revelations. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has instructed JNC management to investigate and report how it has spent the money.
All JNC costs are paid for with taxpayers' cash. The JNC is prohibited from using funds allocated for one area, such as research and development, for other purposes, like to cover personnel and procurement costs.
Yet the institute has set aside some of the money it receives for research and development and other projects as in-house coordination funds every year, officials revealed.
This comes to a massive total of 25 billion yen over the past five years -- more than 5 billion yen was diverted in fiscal 1996, 6.1 billion yen each in fiscal 1997 and 1998, 4 billion yen in fiscal 1999 and 3.8 billion yen in fiscal 2000.
Much of the money was used to cover the salaries of researchers who work for the institute on a contract basis, even though the costs should have been covered with funds set aside for personnel expenses.
Mainichi
Daily News
