Officials under fire for taxi gifts

More than 500 government workers, including 383 from the Finance Ministry, accepted cash and other gifts from taxi drivers on late-night trips whose fares were covered by taxpayers' money, the government acknowledged Friday.

The 502 employees who received the gifts, which also included coupons, beer and snacks, are from 13 central government ministries and entities. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare is still conducting an investigation into the widespread practice, meaning the number could increase.

"I am shocked," Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said in a Diet committee session Friday. "Civil servants are strictly governed by their ethics and must never do anything that could raise suspicion among the public."

The gifts were apparently provided by the cabbies to their regular late-night customers, who used public funds to pay the fares.

Although no laws appear to have been violated, the practice in some cases may have broken the ethics code for public servants, which bans them from receiving benefits that "go beyond the bounds of socially accepted norms."

The practice surfaced after an inquiry by Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) Lower House member Akira Nagatsuma, who raised suspicions about the cab rides of Finance Ministry bureaucrats.

After interviewing its officials and bureaucrats at the National Tax Agency, the Finance Ministry said 383 officials using coupons for late-night taxi fares had admitted to accepting gifts from the drivers.

The Finance Ministry said it would instruct all the officials to return the money and gifts and would consider disciplining employees who have stepped over the line.

In the worst case at the Finance Ministry, a section chief in his 30s at the Budget Bureau received cash and gift certificates each worth between 2,000 yen and 3,000 yen on about 150 occasions a year over the past five years. The net value of the favors totaled at least 1.5 million yen, ministry officials said.

On each of those trips home, he paid more than 20,000 yen to the drivers through coupons issued by the ministry, the officials said.

"Since the official did not pad the taxi fares (to raise the money), it will be difficult to charge him for embezzlement," a ministry official said.

Eighteen officials, at the level of assistant director and section chief at the budget and other bureaus, as well as the tax agency, accepted beer coupons and other gift coupons, while 364 were given cans of beer or tea, the ministry said.

One of them received beer coupons worth 500 yen on about 150 occasions over the past three years.

Of those who received drinks and snacks during their cab rides home, 37 said they accepted those favors 50 times or more, while 327 said they took the gifts on fewer than 50 occasions.

The Finance Ministry plans to establish an internal rule banning its officials from using specific taxis or receiving favors from cabbies when the fares are paid with taxpayers' money.

"While the practice can be viewed as a customer service by taxi drivers, it is regrettable because it can cast doubt on the fairness of the ministry's work," a ministry official said.

The ministry said officials who work past 12:30 a.m. can use taxi tickets funded by taxpayers' money when they return home. The cost of the tickets amounted to about 480 million yen at the ministry and tax agency in fiscal 2006.

As part of the service for regulars, individual-owned taxis often serve drinks and snacks to them. Bureaucrats who work late at night often become regulars of specific owner-driver cabs, a ministry official said.

"Such services have been common practice for the past 20 years or more, and I wonder why it needs to be viewed as a problem now," said a 72-year-old driver waiting for a fare in front of the ministry building.

Another taxi driver said government officials almost never turn down their gifts.

The road transport law also bans taxi operators from returning a portion of fares. Their favors for the government officials may violate the law, officials at the land and transport ministry said.(IHT/Asahi: June 7,2008)