DPJ to create spending watchdog

Democratic Party of Japan President Yukio Hatoyama plans to set up a powerful watchdog body to keep tabs on wasteful public works spending when he forms his government next week, party sources said Sunday.

Tentatively named the Administrative Renewal Council, the watchdog will have the authority for the next 12 months to review all governmental projects, the D J sources said.

In the following three years, projects deemed wasteful are to be abolished while those with a low priority are to be transferred to local governments and the private sector, they said.

The council will also be armed with the authority to determine the fate of semigovernmental public corporations overseeing many of the country's public works. These entities are often a hotbed of corruption and have been criticized for providing retiring bureaucrats with lucrative positions in the practice known as "amakudari."

Following his party's landslide win in the Aug. 30 Lower House election, Hatoyama is to be sworn in as prime minister during a special Diet session scheduled for Sept. 16. The DPJ already has a majority in the Upper House in an alliance with small parties.

The DPJ sources said Hatoyama will quickly inaugurate the watchdog body to deliver on the party's campaign promise to eliminate wasteful spending by the bureaucracy.

Hatoyama plans to appoint Akira Nagatsuma to the post of state minister to head the watchdog body, the sources said. He was the key DPJ figure in uncovering the pension-record debacle that was left unattended for decades by the past governments of the Liberal Democratic Party.

According to the DPJ's blueprint, the watchdog will sort public works projects into five categories based on the extent, if any, that the central government should be involved.

Some public projects will be eliminated and those with a lower priority will be transferred to regional and local governments as well as the private sector over the next three years, according to the plan.

However, essential projects that can be implemented only by the central government will be excluded.

Along the same lines, the DPJ has already forced the land ministry to suspend the controversial Yamba Dam construction project in Gunma Prefecture. Apparently out of consideration for the incoming DPJ administration, which is opposed to the project, the ministry last week froze the bidding process for dam construction.

The Yamba project is expected to be one of the key public works to be scrutinized by the new body.

The DPJ needs to generate trillions of yen to finance the measures it promised voters during the campaign, including a monthly child-care allowance of ¥26,000 per child and removing tolls from expressways.

Regarding appointments for Hatoyama's Cabinet, meanwhile, other party sources said Sunday that DPJ policy chief Masayuki Naoshima was added to a growing list of candidates, probably for an economy-related post.

Several names have already surfaced for key positions. Deputy party leader Naoto Kan has been tapped for state strategy minister and deputy prime minister, and DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada for foreign minister.

Hatoyama's top aide, Hirofumi Hirano, has been tapped for chief Cabinet secretary while DPJ Supreme Adviser Hirohisa Fujii is considered the top candidate for finance minister.

Regarding other posts, Hatoyama said he will not decide on the full Cabinet lineup until an agreement is reached on forming a coalition government with the Social Democratic Party and Kokumin Shinto (People's New Party.)