“Auditors” repeatedly checking political funds repeatedly “audit mistakes”

“Auditor” checking political funds repeatedly “Audit Miss” November 29th, 6:00

Auditors checking parliamentary political funds repeatedly pointed out “audit mistakes”.

Political organizations related to parliamentarians are obliged to undergo external tax accountant audits regarding the use of funds, but overlooked errors in the income and expenditure report and received guidance and advice from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications for more than two years. I found that there were 25 auditors for the four years up to last year.

Some auditors pointed out mistakes for four years in a row, and experts point out that it is a big problem, as it could be suspected that a third party is actually auditing.

In response to the fact that the “politics and money” issues related to the ministers and others caused a series of political distrust of the people, the political organizations involved with the Diet members It is obliged to save the receipt and be audited by an external expert.

Audits are conducted by tax accountants, certified public accountants, and attorneys who have received training in political funds, and check whether accounting books, receipts, etc. are properly stored, and whether there are no errors in the amount, date, etc. In the four years until last year, a total of 157 people have received guidance and advice from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Political Funds Optimization Committee for missing mistakes.

NHK interviewed the auditors who pointed out such “audit mistakes” and found that 25 people had pointed out audit mistakes again in the following year for the four years until last year.

Of these, three were for three consecutive years and one was for four consecutive years, indicating an audit error.

Many of the errors that have been pointed out are overlooked inconsistent in the balance sheet report or simple calculation mistakes, but some of them were overlooked due to double counting of expenditures, or copied and diverted documents from another organization's audit. In other words, there were some sloppy cases such as errors in the report of audit results that seemed to be.

Takashi Tomisaki of Komazawa University, who is familiar with political funds, said, “If the check was not made properly, the report on the balance of political funds would be untrustworthy. It ’s possible for anyone, but if that continues, you ’re wondering if a third party is really auditing, and that ’s a big problem. ”

What are repeated audit mistakes?

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Political Funds Optimization Committee, “audit mistakes” pointed out by auditors who have received guidance and advice for more than two years are as follows.

《Inconsistency in the amount on the income and expenditure report》
The first is “inconsistency in the amount on the income and expenditure report”. Political funds balance reports should include the purpose and amount of each individual expenditure, the date, and the name and address of the person who received the expenditure, as well as the “subtotal” of expenditure for each expense item and page. There is also a column for "Total". There are cases where the sum of these individual expenditures does not match the amount of “subtotal” or “total”, and there is a suspicion that the auditor is not reimbursed properly.

《Incompatibility between balance report and receipt》
The second is “inconsistency between the balance report and receipt amount”. For example, although the income and expenditure report says “12,600 yen” expenditure but the receipt says “12,660 yen”, because of lack of confirmation, It seems that he overlooked the mistake in copying the amount written on the receipt.

《Overlapping expenditures》
In addition, it has been pointed out that “overlap of expenditures”, which duplicates the same expenditure based on a single receipt, is included in the income and expenditure report.

<< There is a mistake in the audit report ... >>
Furthermore, it has been pointed out that there were errors in the audit results report prepared by the auditor. A case was found in which the name of the political organization that was audited, the period of the audit target, and the text of the law on which it was based were found to be incorrect, all of which were copied and diverted from reports of previous audits of other political organizations It is believed that it happened because of

Auditor pointed out a mistake "There is no time for a huge amount of materials."

I was able to interview the auditor who was pointed out “inspection mistake” for several years by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.

The auditor said, “I conduct a careful audit every year, but I am wrong because mistakes are mistakes.

“Political organizations related to parliamentarians must save all receipts of 1 yen or more, and the political organizations they are responsible for have 4000 copies a year. `` There are cases where the date, item, purpose, etc. are not listed and you have to request reissuance, and there are many mistakes in the accounting book that you check against the income and expenditure report, so it is a hard work every time. '' talked.

“The audit takes time, but the legislator asks for the audit just before the deadline for submitting the income and expenditure report, so we have to check a large amount of materials in a limited time. Why? I don't know the exact reason why I made a mistake, but I think this is the reason behind the "audit mistake". "

History of the Political Fund Audit System

In 2007, the political funds control law was revised in response to the increasing public distrust of the government due to a series of problems related to utilities and office expenses of political organizations related to ministers.

As a result, political organizations related to parliamentarians were obliged to save receipts for all expenditures and receive external audits from the 2009 report on political funds.

The audit is carried out by tax accountants, certified public accountants and lawyers who have received training on political funds and registered with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' political funds optimization committee, and as of September 20, 5013 people have registered.

The auditor does not have the authority to check whether the use of political funds is appropriate, and outlines whether the accounting books and receipts are properly stored, whether there are any unnatural points in the amount and date, etc. All you have to do is check, but you will never miss simple mistakes or lack of confirmation.

For this reason, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Political Funds Optimization Committee has provided guidance and advice to auditors who found audit errors in the process of confirming the documents submitted from the 2014 income and expenditure report. In 2014, 17 people were pointed out, 48 people in 2015, 46 people in 2016 and 29 years, both of which pointed out audit errors.

In the future, the Political Fund Optimization Committee will improve the quality of audits by enhancing training for auditors who have pointed out mistakes, creating a collection of case examples of mistakes due to lack of confirmation, etc. I want to.