By Takaaki SasakiTHE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2009/4/30
There seems to be no end to scandals over shady political funds of Diet members. Behind every disgraced Diet member is a group of political aides. Irregularities and acts of corruption by lawmakers, therefore, can almost certainly be assumed to involve the secretaries who handle their affairs.
Currently, each Diet member is allowed to hire three government-paid secretaries--a policy-planning secretary and first and second secretaries. The system is needed to support the political work of lawmakers.
I have served as policy secretary to lawmakers of both the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and opposition Minshuto (Democratic Party of Japan) for nearly 10 years through 2008. During that time, as far as I know, many of the government-funded secretaries were absent from the Diet.
Instead, they were busy in their bosses' electoral districts dealing with support group affairs, petitions, ceremonial functions such as funerals and weddings of constituents, and political fund raising. In other words, they were engaged in activities aimed at getting their lawmakers reelected. The trend was all the more prominent with elections approaching. The fact is that taxes are being used for reelection activities of lawmakers.
Under such circumstances, candidates who are trying to win Diet seats for the first time and former lawmakers who are hoping to make a comeback after losing their seats in previous elections are at a disadvantage. They are not in a position to use tax-funded aides for their own election campaigns. In short, the situation gets in the way of political rejuvenation.
The way the system works is also troubling. There are no official qualifications or standards that first and second secretaries are required to meet. Given that aides are government employees, this is abnormal. It means the people who fill these positions often have insufficient knowledge of the Political Fund Control Law and Public Offices Election Law, which are indispensable for dealing with the financial and legal affairs of lawmakers.
This situation is one of the reasons for a number of irregular practices by lawmakers and the decline in the quality of politicians.
Because there are no restrictions on the hiring of first and second aides, lawmakers are free to hire or dismiss them at their discretion. That gives rise to a situation where lawmakers have unfettered control over their underlings, making it difficult for the aides to adequately perform their checking function. It has also become a common practice for lawmakers to virtually force their aides to make donations out of their government-funded wages.
By contrast, policy secretaries are required to meet certain qualifications and standards. While their main duty is to help lawmakers formulate policies, the lack of clear stipulations in the law concerning their status and job means that many of them cannot concentrate on policymaking and tend to engage in election campaigns in the lawmakers' constituencies instead.
Those who are hired after passing qualifying exams make up only about 10 percent of all policy aides. A majority of them gain their posts by taking advantage of the system that allows people who work as first or second secretaries for a certain number of years to qualify to become policy secretaries. This is hardly conducive to getting the best people for the job.
In order to make the aide system worthy of hard-earned taxpayer money, we have to demand a basic set of credentials from all publicly funded secretaries. First secretaries should specialize in financial affairs and be required to familiarize themselves with the Political Fund Control Law, while second secretaries should be expected to understand the Public Offices Election Law so that they can concentrate on legal affairs. All policy secretaries should be required to pass a standardized exam.
Furthermore, new legislation is necessary to spell out the legal status of government-funded aides and stipulate the service and ethical regulations that bind them. Policy secretaries should be banned from involving themselves in election campaigns and political fund-raising because such activities run counter to the fundamental purpose of their roles.
I would also like to see a ban on government-funded secretaries making political donations, and the creation of a guilt-by-association system to also punish government-funded aides when their bosses violate laws. In order to dispel public distrust of our political system, an overhaul of the government-funded secretary system is essential.
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The author is a former policy secretary to Diet members.(IHT/Asahi: April 30,2009
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