For up to three years, more than 2 billion yen gathered dust in a zero-interest bank account of the Defense Agency, costing the nation millions in unearned interest payments, sources said.

The money-2.02 billion yen-was refunded by the United Nations for Japan's peacekeeping operations, sources said over the weekend. But the Defense Agency failed to transfer the funds to the national treasury.

The United Nations has refunded 2.8 billion yen to Japan since fiscal 1996. But the Board of Audit discovered that 72 percent of that money had been left in the agency's zero-interest account, which is intended to temporarily hold deposits before transfers are settled, the sources said.

Defense Agency officials blamed administrative delays for the transfer failure.

The Board of Audit was able to examine agency records for U.N. refunds dating back only to fiscal 1996, the sources said.

The 2.8 billion yen was to reimburse Japanese spending on Self-Defense Forces' participation in four peacekeeping operations from fiscal 1996 to the end of June this year, including one in East Timor.

The United Nations transferred the money to Defense Agency bank accounts in Japan. The agency was supposed to have placed that cash in the government treasury.

The United Nations pays refunds to all countries that send troops for peacekeeping operations based on final reports prepared by the dispatched troops' organizations.

For example, funding per Japanese peacekeeper was more than 100,000 yen a month, which covers living expenses and clothing and is in line with expertise levels, Defense Agency sources said.

The United Nations also pays reimbursements for each vehicle dispatched. The use of a truck is worth about 100,000 yen to 200,000 yen per month, the sources said.

For developing countries, the U.N. refund is a crucial source of funding to maintain troops, the sources said.

The untransferred 2.02 billion yen was sent by the United Nations after October 2001. Of that amount, 1.8 billion yen was for the operation in East Timor, which ended this June. In addition, 200 million yen was repaid for the ongoing SDF participation in the Golan Heights, along with 20 million yen for other operations, including one in Cambodia that ended in 1993.

The Defense Agency plans to include SDF activities overseas, currently considered optional, into its regular scope of duties in the basic defense outline to be drawn up by the end of this year.

If the scope is upgraded, the Board of Audit would demand stricter oversight on the U.N. refunds, which belong in the public coffers, they say.(IHT/Asahi: October 13,2004) (10/13)