Japanese audit finds $1.6 billion wasted in Fukushima nuclear plant cleanup.

Corruption, graft and incompetence in government is absolutely universal and Japan is no stranger to it.

When an audit of the Yen spent on the cleanup and repair of the Fukushima nuclear facility after a tsunami destroyed it, the auditor discovered a major discrepancy on the books. I am surprise the books were not doctored to hide the theft.

Some of the failures cited in the report:

CNN

FRENCH IMPORT: Among the costliest failures was a 32 billion yen ($270 million) machine made by French nuclear giant Areva SA to remove radioactive cesium from water leaking from the three wrecked reactors. The trouble-plagued machine lasted just three months and treated only 77,000 tons of water, a tiny fraction of the volume leaking every day. It has since been replaced with Japanese and American machines.

SALT REMOVAL: Sea water was used early in the crisis to cool the reactors after the normal cooling systems failed. Machines costing 18.4 billion yen ($150 million) from several companies including Hitachi GE Nuclear Energy, Toshiba Corp. and Areva were supposed to remove the salt from the contaminated water at the plant. One of the machines functioned only five days, and the longest lasted just six weeks.

SHODDY TANKS: TEPCO hurriedly built dozens of storage tanks for the contaminated water at a cost of 16 billion yen ($134 million). The shoddy tanks, using rubber seals and assembled by unskilled workers, began leaking and some water seeped into the ground and then into the ocean. The tanks are now being replaced with more durable welded ones.

GIANT UNDERGROUND POOLS: A total of 2.1 billion yen ($18 million) was spent on seven huge underground pools built by Maeda Corp. to store the contaminated water. They leaked within weeks, and the water had to be transferred to steel tanks.

UNFROZEN TRENCH: A 100 million yen ($840,000) project to contain highly contaminated water in a maintenance tunnel by freezing it failed because the water never completely froze. TEPCO subsidiary Tokyo Power Technology even threw in chunks of ice, but eventually had to pour in cement to seal the trench.

The article didn’t state how many of the contractors that were awarded the jobs were cousins, brother in-laws, business associates or had some affiliation with the people in the disbursement department. .

Webster – The definition of contract is: An agreement between two or more parties, especially one that is written and enforceable by law.

The writing or document containing such an agreement.

The branch of law dealing with formal agreements between parties.

All parties concerned are obligated to fulfill their part of the contract.

If either party fails to complete any portion of the contract, the contract should be null and void.

If a legitimate contract is null and void the owner is NOT obligated to pay the contractor.

Those are the guidelines that are supposed to be followed but the procedures usually are not adhered to with most government projects because of collusion and  backdoor dealings between parties.

Sayonara to 1.6 billion dollars US dollars or 191,660,800.00 Japanese Yen. That yen surely could have bought some poor Japanese families a lot of egg foo young.