統計書き換え「無批判に継続」　情報共有不足、業務過多が原因―検証委報告書

　国土交通省の「建設工事受注動態統計」書き換え問題で、外部弁護士らでつくる検証委員会（委員長・寺脇一峰元大阪高検検事長）は１４日、報告書を斉藤鉄夫国交相に提出した。報告書は「手順に従って業務をこなすことに疑問を持たず不適切処理が長年無批判に継続した」と非難。幹部職員の情報共有不足や担当者の業務過多が原因と認定した。国交省は人員配置の改善など再発防止策を講じるとともに関与した職員を処分する。
　松野博一官房長官は同日、岸田文雄首相が斉藤国交相に対し再発防止を改めて指示したと明らかにした。
　報告書によると、同統計の調査票の書き換えは、事務負担軽減などのため、統計が始まった２０００年以前から行われていた。推計方法を見直した１３年４月以降は実態よりも数値が水増しされていたが、担当者は疑問を持たずに継続。報告書は「あえて大きな数字を公表しようとする意図は認められない」としつつ、慢性的な業務過多や、事情を把握する幹部職員間の情報共有不足が原因だったとした。（2022/01/14-18:26）

A lack of information-sharing among senior officials and the excessive workloads of the employees involved were behind a construction orders data-tampering scandal at the Japanese infrastructure ministry, an investigation committee said in a report Friday.
   In the report, the committee, composed chiefly of lawyers, called on the ministry to launch measures aimed at improving personnel distribution, promoting the acquisition of expertise by relevant personnel and clarifying ways to deal with problems when they occur, as part of preventive efforts.
   "We want the government to take measures to prevent any recurrence in order to restore confidence in government statistics," said Kazumine Terawaki, head of the committee and former superintending prosecutor at the Osaka High Public Prosecutors Office.
   After receiving the report, infrastructure minister Tetsuo Saito said, "We take the matter seriously and will make the utmost efforts to restore confidence in government statistics." He suggested that the ministry will make efforts to restore correct past data and prevent similar problems from happening while taking disciplinary measures against workers involved.
   In the scandal, which came to light in December last year, prefectural government officials rewrote data on construction orders for many years at the instruction of the ministry. The orders are one of the core statistics used in the compilation of Japan's gross domestic product data.