農家への補助金で不正支給　申請書の日付改ざんや写真ねつ造　神奈川県海老名市【もっと知りたい！】【グッド！モーニング】(2026年7月24日)

It has been discovered that Ebina City, Kanagawa Prefecture, had improperly distributed subsidies. The falsification of application dates and the fabrication of photographs have been uncovered. ■ Over 80% of applications: 31 cases of fraud discovered Ebina City Council Chairman, Kosuke Nagai: "This is a truly serious matter. It should never have happened." Female farmer: "I've never heard of anything like this. I'm truly shocked." The Ebina City Council meeting held on the 23rd began with an apology from Mayor Yu Uchino. "As the person in charge of city administration, I offer my deepest apologies." The incident stemmed from an audit report released on the 21st. "Data falsification was carried out systematically, and subsidies were disbursed without proper verification of document authenticity or on-site inspection." The subsidies in question were intended to help farmers purchase vehicles as a measure against rising prices, providing half of the cost, up to a maximum of 2 million yen. Fraud was discovered in 31 cases, representing over 80% of the applications. ■ Date Tampering and Photo Fabrication One of the frauds pointed out in the report was "photo fabrication." Because the vehicle delivery was delayed, a photo identical to one submitted by another farmer was reused. Furthermore, "date tampering" was also discovered. The dates on the receipts were concentrated towards the end of the fiscal year, when application deadlines were approaching, and traces of intentional editing and alteration of dates were confirmed. Audit Report "It was found that the policy of 'prioritizing the expenditure of subsidies' condoned the tampering. The department in charge stated, 'We wanted to support as many agricultural workers as possible.'" Furthermore, it was discovered that financial institution certificates were systematically forged. The following comments were made by Ebina City Council members upon receiving the report of the fraud: Councilman Masayuki Matsumoto: "If it was intentional, it couldn't have been done without a certain level of power. An ordinary section chief couldn't have done it." Another councilman said… Ebina City Councilman: "Agriculture is one of Ebina City's important industries. Someone may have shown excessive deference to the wishes of the farmers, who are the voters." ■ Third-Party Investigation: Negative Reaction The audit report recommended clarifying the systemic involvement in the misconduct. However, the city is currently negative about a third-party investigation. Ebina City Deputy Mayor Keiichi Hagiwara: "(Q. No third-party investigation?) Not at the moment." "(Q. Why not a third-party investigation?) I think the fundamental principle is that we investigate ourselves and make our findings public." Ebina City plans to explain the situation to all council members on the 20th of next month. Speaker Nagai: "The citizens are not easily convinced. We will demand a sincere response from the city government." (From the broadcast on July 24, 2026) [TV Asahi NEWS] https://news.tv-asahi.co.jp