八代市庁舎建設めぐるあっせん収賄　逮捕の現職市議が語っていた内容は…【熊本】 (26/05/14 19:00)

It has been a week since the arrest of three people, including a sitting city council member, on suspicion of receiving 60 million yen in cash from a construction company in connection with the construction of the Yatsushiro City Hall, which was damaged in the Kumamoto earthquake. Even before the arrest of the sitting city council member, a committee had been established within the city council to investigate the allegations, but the council member in question continued to strongly deny them. The current Yatsushiro City Hall was completed in February 2022. Suspicions arose regarding the rebuilding of this city hall, including allegations that "standards favoring a specific company were set" during the bidding process. In response, the city council established a special investigative committee, a so-called "Article 100 Committee," based on the Local Autonomy Act, in December of last year to investigate the allegations. [April's Hundred-Article Committee] "Suddenly, I heard from my superior that the bidding process had been changed to a general competitive bidding system based on comprehensive evaluation. It was a 'divine intervention,' and I was instructed to follow this plan exactly, without changing a single word." "I thought I would be threatened if I contacted Councilman Narimatsu. I also didn't want any trouble later, so I changed the conditions to include Maeda Construction Co., Ltd." Councilman Yukio Narimatsu, at the center of the allegations, flatly denied these statements about himself and continued to refute them. [Councilman Yukio Narimatsu] (April 15th, Liberal Democratic Party City Council Group Press Conference) "If the police have any doubts, I think they'll even look through my bank passbook. I'm in jail, to be clear. I firmly deny receiving any money." However, on May 7th… [Reporter Yuka Kubota] "It was a little after 10:40 AM. A car carrying City Councilman Narimatsu entered the Kumamoto East Police Station." The joint investigation team of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and the Kumamoto Prefectural Police arrested City Councilman Narimatsu. They also arrested former City Councilman Teruyuki Matsuura and Chusuke Sonokawa, an executive of the Yatsushiro-based construction company Sonokawa-gumi. Narimatsu and the others are suspected of bribery for influencing the bidding process. They allegedly instructed city officials on a bidding method that would allow a consortium including Maeda Construction Co., Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, to win the bid for the reconstruction of the city hall. They are suspected of receiving 60 million yen in cash in June 2021 as a reward. According to their lawyers, all three deny the charges. Furthermore, the statute of limitations has already expired for Maeda Construction Co., Ltd., which provided the cash. Police have seized more than 300 items, including safes, from the suspect's home and other related locations during searches conducted up to the 12th, and are continuing their investigation.