県民の疑念・不信払拭なるか　福岡県議会の諸問題　解決へ善後策

The Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly is currently facing several major problems. These include expensive overseas trips by assembly members, and the issue of a prefectural employee's voluntary association paying for political fundraising party tickets for assembly members. Significant progress was made today regarding these issues. Governor Hattori of Fukuoka Prefecture visited the Speaker's office of the Prefectural Assembly. He was met by Speaker Kurauchi and Vice Speaker Nakao. Governor Hattori stated, "We will be issuing a notice today, June 1st, regarding the concretization of operational guidelines for contract procedures for overseas activities, and I would like to explain them to you." He then addressed the issue of "overseas trips" by prefectural assembly members. The problems included "discretionary contracts" with specific travel agencies for services such as interpretation, and cases where contracts were repeatedly changed, causing the initial contract fees to balloon to more than ten times the original amount. The prefecture revised its operational guidelines for contract procedures, and Governor Hattori explained them to the assembly. Governor Hattori: "Contract procedures will, in principle, be conducted through competitive bidding. We will ensure competitiveness by obtaining estimates from approximately five companies." The revised plan includes provisions for competitive bidding, where estimates are obtained from multiple companies, and for ensuring transparency by publishing the outline of contract procedures and estimated prices on the website. Chairman Kurauchi: "The Prefectural Assembly will also adhere to these operational guidelines when conducting overseas activities." The meeting did not end there. Governor Hattori: "Regarding the departmental and divisional heads' meeting issue, we are currently continuing our investigation…" The departmental and divisional heads' meeting issue. This was a voluntary organization composed of prefectural departmental heads and above, with membership fees deducted from their salaries. A portion of these membership fees was used to purchase tickets for political fundraising parties for the Prefectural Assembly Speaker and others, and the money was sent in a lump sum. Regarding this issue, a notice was issued to all employees on the 1st. Governor Hattori: "Today, we issued a notice from the Director of General Affairs regarding ensuring the service discipline concerning the political neutrality of public officials. We will thoroughly implement this throughout the entire prefectural government." The notice prohibits, in principle, the use of departmental and divisional council fees to pay for events hosted by political organizations, including political fundraising party tickets. Furthermore, a "consultation service" will be established for officials who have received approaches that may undermine their neutrality. Speaker Kurauchi: "The Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly intends to refrain from sending invitations to political fundraising parties and similar events to prefectural officials from assembly members in the future. The governor has issued guidelines, so I hope that prefectural officials will strictly adhere to them." Governor Hattori's regular press conference: "I apologize for the fact that these incidents have caused suspicion and distrust in the prefectural government." There are other issues concerning the Fukuoka Prefectural Assembly. We will summarize them in the studio.