KUMAMOTO (TR) — Police here have arrested a 54-year-old city council member for allegedly pocketing 60 million yen in cash to rig the bidding process for the construction of a new city hall, reports Nippon News Network (May 7).
Yukio Narimatsu, a member of the Yatsushiro City Council, was taken into custody by a joint task force of Tokyo Metropolitan Police and the Kumamoto Prefectural Police on suspicion of accepting bribes in exchange for peddling influence, investigative sources revealed.
Between 2016 and 2021, Narimatsu and two others are accused of accepting the massive payoff from Tokyo-based construction giant Maeda Corporation. In return, he allegedly pulled strings to ensure a joint venture involving the company won the lucrative contract to rebuild the Yatsushiro City Hall, which had been severely damaged in the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes.
Investigators believe the councilman heavily pressured senior city officials to alter the city’s bidding system to a “comprehensive evaluation method.” This sudden switch made it significantly easier for the Maeda-led group to secure the project.
Authorities suspect that the bidding was rigged from the ground up, with Maeda Corporation allegedly drafting the very evaluation criteria that the city adopted to guarantee the company held an unbeatable advantage.
The joint police task force is currently conducting a detailed investigation into the exact circumstances surrounding the backroom dealings between Narimatsu and the construction firm.
