TOKYO, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) on Monday vowed to improve its corporate governance following a decades-old scandal involving the former deputy mayor of a town hosting one of its nuclear plants routinely bribing the firm's executives.
The Osaka-based company said it will implement a number of reforms to improve its corporate governance, including establishing new committees comprising outside directors to better oversee its executive strata and provide increased transparency.
The company also said Sadayuki Sakakibara, the former head of the Japan Business Federation as the country's most powerful business lobby, had been appointed as the chairman, according to a plan presented to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).
Sakakibara will take over from Makoto Yagi who stepped down last October to take responsibility for the bribery scandal.
"We will carry out these reforms and strive to become a company that is trusted by the public," President Takashi Morimoto told a press briefing following the submission of the plan to METI.
Third-party investigations found that Eiji Moriyama, the late former deputy mayor of Takahama, in Fukui Prefecture, for more than three decades, furnished 75 executives, officials and employees with lavish gifts and cash handouts totaling around 360 million yen (3.34 million U.S. dollars).
One of the executives, formerly in charge of the utility's nuclear business, said he received a gift that could certainly be considered a kickback for awarding contracts to companies two decades ago from Moriyama. The executive said he began receiving gifts from Moriyama in the late 1990s.
The investigation has since found the bribes started to be dished out as early as 1987.
Among other executives, one was found to have received a cash payment of around 1 million yen (9,200 U.S. dollars) and gift vouchers to the tune of 400,000 yen (3,700 U.S. dollars), while two others accepted five tailor-made suits gifted from a company awarded a contract by Kansai Electric, sources close to the matter have said.
KEPCO said that an additional 82 people will be subjected to disciplinary measures, bringing the total of those found culpable in the wake of the scandal to 93.
The company is now required by METI by the end of June to report on its improvements following the implementation of its reformatory measures.
