How can they be qualified to be ministers?

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How can they be qualified to be ministers?
Akahata editorial (excerpts)

The Abe Cabinet is under fire for allegations that two of its members made inappropriate uses of their political funds.

Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Ibuki Bunmei and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Matsuoka Toshikatsu are in the hot seat in connection with suspicious expenditures on "office expenses".

Although all Dietmembers, including these two politicians, use rent-free space in the Dietmembers' Office Building in Tokyo as their "main" offices, Ibuki and Matsuoka in their political financial reports stated that they expended tens of millions of yen on their office rents from their political funds. This revelation by Akahata on the front page of its January 3 issue has been confirmed by commercial papers.

Any expenditure of 50,000 yen or more for political activities is required to be reported with a receipt. But politicians are allowed to report "office expenses" without details or receipts attached.

There are loopholes that enable politicians to cover up unlawful expenditures by inflating the amounts of "office expenses".

In Ibuki's case, his two political action groups in 2005 reported that they expended 47 million yen on renting offices. This is strange because they have no obligation to pay office rents.

Ibuki's secretary has explained that his offices in Kyoto City (his constituency) and Tokyo have paid office rents and that office expenses included 5-6 million yen a year on dining and wining by Ibuki and other people. This is how he blurted out his secret, admitting that his office had reported expenses on wining and dining as part of office expenses instead of outlays for political activities.

There has surfaced another suspicion that Ibuki's political action groups that are not engaged in day-to-day political activities may have reported huge amounts of expenditures on office expenses. Ibuki's political funds report lacks transparency.

Ibuki hastily called a press conference on the evening of January 10 and denied that there had been any violation of the Political Funds Control Law in his political funds report. The law requires politicians to maintain transparency in their financial activities so that they can always be under public oversight and subject to public scrutiny.

It is impermissible for Education Minister Ibuki to believe that he can engage in law-breaking activities. His insistence that he is doing nothing illegal while continuing with inappropriate expenditures makes him unqualified to be a minister.

Agriculture minister Matsuoka also reported in 2005 that he expended 33 million yen on office expenses.

His office has failed to report one million yen it earned from the sales of tickets for a fundraiser to a group related to a company that has been exposed and charged with collecting funds amounting to more than 13 billion yen by fraudulent means. This question remains unanswered.

Prime Minister Abe Shintaro cannot evade responsibility for appointing Ibuki and Matsuoka as his ministers. Abe has decided not to investigate the allegations saying that he has received reports from them stating that they are in compliance with the law.

The government must thoroughly reveal the facts before the public.
-Akahata, January 13, 2007