Photo/Illutration A poster for the suspended Go To Travel subsidy program (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Japan's audit watchdog reported that more than 10 billion yen ($69.7 million) went to waste in government funds for programs to tackle the novel coronavirus pandemic.

It cited inadequate understanding on the part of medical institutions, as well as evaluations by government officials, as probable key reasons for the large overpayment of government funds.

The Board of Audit, in a report released Nov. 7, reflected a study of government payments between fiscal 2019 and 2021.

It identified 66 programs in which government funds were wasted or used inappropriately. The total amount came to 10.23 billion yen.

The sum includes about 5.5 billion yen overpaid to 32 hospitals that had set aside beds to treat COVID-19 patients.

In applying for the funds, hospitals included beds that were not covered by the program or used inappropriate classifications.

The program was intended to pay for hospital beds that had been set aside specifically for COVID-19 patients, but never used, or beds that had to be made unavailable for use because floor space was needed to treat COVID-19 patients.

The program was not designed to make payments for beds used by COVID-19 patients when hospitalized. But all 32 hospitals applied for funds even during periods when a bed was taken.

Beds set aside for COVID-19 patients in intensive care and high care units of general hospitals warranted payments of between 211,000 yen and 301,000 yen a day, while all other beds merited 71,000 yen.

But four hospitals listed the ordinary beds as being for high care unit use and received excess payments totaling around 3.1 billion yen.

“Even a minor error can lead to excess payments in the hundreds of millions of yen,” said a high-ranking official of the Board of Audit. “Many hospitals had an inadequate understanding of the program. The prefectural governments handling the payments were also lax in their initial evaluation.”

The Board of Audit report found that 80.9 percent of a total budgeted amount of about 76.5 trillion yen for the three years had been paid out.

About 5 percent of the total, or 4.674 trillion yen, was considered no longer necessary. Not surprisingly, the Go To Travel promotional campaign aimed at the tourism industry had the largest amount defined as unneeded at 774.3 billion yen, or about 40 percent of the 2 trillion yen or so that was budgeted. The program was suspended in late 2020 after COVID-19 cases spiked.

A program to help small businesses get back on their feet only spent 18.9 percent of the 2.8 trillion yen allocated, mainly because the body commissioned to carry out the program could not secure sufficient personnel to conduct evaluations of applications.

The Board of Audit also turned up some programs that left its officials baffled over how much government money was actually used.

So-called excess funds totaling 478.8 billion yen were distributed in 16 programs to local governments in lump-sum payments on condition an accounting of how the funds were spent was submitted later.

While that money was later returned to central government coffers, the Board of Audit called on government ministries to provide detailed information on the excess funds.

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