Police giving discretionary contracts

The Yomiuri Shimbun

OSAKA--Traffic safety associations in 30 prefectures were awarded discretionary contracts to oversee parking meter and ticket machine operations by police headquarters this fiscal year, even though a revision of a related regulation in January opened up the bidding to private firms and other bodies, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

Some of the associations' employees are retired police officers.
Parking meters and parking ticket machines have been introduced in 40 prefectures. While 10 prefectural police headquarters invited public bids for the management of the machines, only one prefecture awarded the contract to a private firm.

Discretionary contracts awarded to the traffic safety associations in the 30 prefectures were worth 5 billion yen, a figure that represents 98 percent of the overall value of the contracts.

According to the National Police Agency, Road Traffic Law regulations allowed the commissioning of management works to public corporations established "to contribute to traffic safety" until fiscal 2006. Prefectural police awarded discretionary contracts for the works to local traffic safety associations until that point.

However, the three-year plan for deregulation and opening up of public business to the private sector, which was adopted at a Cabinet meeting in March 2006, concluded there was no appropriate reason to limit such management works to public corporations.

As a result, the regulation was revised to allow the private sector to bid for such management contracts.

According to documents obtained by The Yomiuri Shimbun from the relevant prefectural police headquarters based on the Freedom of Information Act, 40 prefectural police headquarters commissioned management works worth a total of 5.1 billion yen to outside bodies in fiscal 2007.
However, the Metropolitan Police Department and Osaka, Aichi, Fukuoka and 26 other prefectural police headquarters did not invite bids for the works, and instead awarded discretionary contracts to traffic safety associations.

In the case of the 11 prefectural police forces that disclosed the expected maximum price of the contract, the actual contract prices reached an average of 99.8 percent of the expected maximum contract prices.

Only 10 prefectural police headquarters, which own the relatively small number of parking meters and ticket machines, invited bids.

In three of the 10 prefectures, a traffic safety association and private firms participated in the bid for the works. Oita Prefecture's traffic safety association won the contract at 9.9 million yen, about half of the last fiscal year's contract price.

In Wakayama Prefecture, the prefecture's association did not want to bid, so the one private security firm that took part in the bidding won the contract--the sole example of a private firm winning a management contract.

In six of the 10 prefectures, only traffic safety associations participated in the bids. The prefectural police headquarters in Nara only permitted bodies that had registered management of parking ticket machines as one of their business activities with the prefectural government to participate in the bid, technically limiting the bid's participants to the prefecture's traffic safety association. The contract was awarded to the association at the ceiling price.

===

'Transparency a must'

The MPD commissioned the management work of parking meters to the Tokyo Traffic Safety Association at its discretion for 3.31 billion yen.

An MPD officer who oversees the enforcement of parking regulations said, "We can't allow an inappropriate body to get involved in the [parking regulation] business, even if we're told to open up the bidding to the private sector."

About 710, or 60 percent, of the Tokyo association's employees are former police officers, including a former MPD traffic department chief who now serves as its executive director.

Parking meters are provided for about 15,000 parking spaces, and there are ticket machines for about 3,250 parking spaces in Tokyo.

The association's employees collect parking fees and check the machines.

The MPD officer indicated the MPD might again award a discretionary contract to the association next fiscal year, saying: "We contend there aren't many bodies that are capable of dealing with a great number of ticket machines. It might be a good idea to divide the area into smaller zones and allow different bodies to handle the various zones. It may take some time before we can determine the best way to award contracts for the works."

Prof. Sakae Kitazawa of Tohoku University of Community Service and Science said: "Ministries and other public offices often attempt to award discretionary contracts for public works to bodies that are related to the offices, by putting too much emphasis on the public and somewhat unusual nature of the tasks. But I don't believe the management of parking meters requires special abilities. The police should invite open bids to ensure their contracts are transparent.

(Nov. 25, 2007)