Suspicion is mounting that Hyogo Governor Motohiko Saito may have unfairly punished a prefectural government employee who charged him with power harassment and corruption.

He has been accused of neglecting to take appropriate action as required by the whistleblowing system after the employee denounced his abusive behavior.

In an Aug. 7 news conference, Saito explained the timeline of the actions he and the prefectural government took in response to the accusations against him made in March by the former head of the prefectural government’s branch office in charge of the western Nishi-Harima region.

On March 20, the governor himself obtained, from a private acquaintance, a document sent by the former employee, who died in an apparent suicide in July, to some media outlets and prefectural assembly members.

The next day, he discussed the matter with then Vice Governor Yasutaka Katayama, who resigned at the end of July, and other senior officials. During this meeting, the man’s name was mentioned and the governor ordered an investigation.

The whistleblower protection law defines media outlets as possible reporting channels and prohibits disadvantageous treatment of whistleblowers under certain conditions.

However, the top officials who attended the meeting made no specific examination to determine whether this case constituted a whistleblowing disclosure, nor did they consult with a lawyer over the issue.

Moreover, both the governor and the vice governor were the subjects of the accusations. There are significant doubts about the fairness and objectivity of the decisions made by these members.

On March 25, the prefectural government interviewed the potential whistleblower. They inspected his work computer and found data related to the whistleblowing document.

According to the prefecture, the man admitted to creating and distributing the document and said it was a collection of rumors he had gathered.

Two days later, the prefecture revoked the man’s official retirement, which was set for the end of March.

The governor vehemently criticized him in a news conference that day, stating that the act of creating and spreading documents containing “a pack of lies” during work hours disqualifies one for being a public servant.

The law states that for legitimate external whistleblowing, the whistleblower must have “reasonable grounds to believe that a reportable fact is true.”

The governor reiterated that the man’s actions did not constitute a whistleblowing disclosure, arguing that “there was no evidence to support the content or credible statements from involved parties in the document.”

In a document distributed to the media in early April, the man admitted that “there were different degrees of accuracy of the information” included in the whistleblowing document. Descriptions in a document handed to the prefectural assembly by him and released posthumously also suggest that he amended or withdrew some of his accusations.

However, his whistleblowing covered a wide range of accusations, and it is difficult to immediately judge whether there were “reasonable grounds to believe” the truth of all these charges.

In cases of whistleblowing disclosure, it is not uncommon for evidence and testimonies to support the truthfulness of the disclosure to be presented in stages.

In April, the man went through the official whistleblowing procedure with the prefecture, but the local administration’s personnel division continued the investigation and disciplined him in May. It seems possible that the governor’s strong condemnation influenced these actions.

The special investigative committee (so-called article 100 committee) was set up by the prefectural assembly to conduct a probe into the case. The role of the article 100 committee is to verify the truth of individual accusations.

However, it is also the duty of the assembly to review the prefectural government’s series of responses to the case. The assembly must fulfill its function as a watchdog to monitor and scrutinize the local government’s decisions and actions.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 9