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Digital Agency Compliance Committee (6th)

Digital Agency will be the control tower for the formation of digital society, which aims to realize the sustainable and sound development of the Japanese economy and the happy lives of the people. The expectations of the people toward Digital Agency are extremely high, and Digital Agency bears an extremely heavy responsibility.

At today's meeting, active discussions and exchanges of views were held on the results of a survey conducted by an external auditing firm on the operation status of rules such as restrictions on bidding, which is an initiative unique to procurement to ensure transparency and fairness in Digital Agency.

The results of today's discussions will be fully reflected in the formulation of various norms and rules in Digital Agency.

Overview

  • Date and Time: Friday, June 23, 2023 (2023) from 14:00 to 15:00
  • Location: Digital Agency Shared Conference Room (Online Conference)

Committee Members

(Japanese syllabary order, honorific titles omitted)

Members

  • Toshiya Natori (Legal Partner, ITN Law Office): Chairman
  • Koichi Endo (Councilor Digital Agency)
  • Toru Kajikawa (Representative Partner and Chairman, Taiyo LLC)
  • Jiro Kokuryo (Professor, Faculty of Policy Studies, Keio University)
  • Akihiko Shiba (Attorney at Shiba and Tanaka Management Law Office)
  • Keiko Fujimori (Representative Director / Certified Public Accountant, ASIMOV ROBOTICS Co., Ltd.)

Materials

Relevant policies

Minutes

Order of business

  • Report on Investigation Results on Ensuring Compliance
  • Other

Summary of proceedings

After the Secretariat explained the contents of each agenda, discussions were held. The main opinions are as follows.

Report on Investigation Results on Ensuring Compliance

  • The mechanism of bidding restrictions in which, as a general rule, companies to which employees involved in the creation of written specifications are concurrently employed cannot participate in bidding seems to contribute to ensuring the fairness of procurement to a considerable extent. On the other hand, private sector specialists is expected to be involved in providing specialized know-how before the creation of written specifications, and in the course of that, I think that information such as the concept and policies of the project and the time of ordering the project may be known earlier than others. In order to ensure the fairness of procurement, it is necessary to firmly manage such internal information. Therefore, we would like to ask for continued dissemination and guidance to employees and education regarding the observance of confidentiality obligations under the National Public Service Act and the appropriate treatment of internal information.
  • Regarding the fact that there are still no applications for exemption, it has been a while since the bidding limitation system was operated, but it seems that it does not always work well. The original purpose is to improve productivity by incorporating wisdom from private sector, but the lack of applications for exemption may be a bottleneck. If the cause is a lack of understanding on the part of the company, it is necessary to provide further explanation, but this may not always be the case. The company may be sensitive to risk and be excessively cautious. If it is the first case, it will attract attention not only from Digital Agency but also from the rest of the world, and if a problem is found even in a trivial matter, it will be criticized as a violation of compliance. Then, the company's image will be greatly damaged. Considering these factors, it may be that the company has judged that it is not necessary to dare to challenge and win the bid.
  • If a concurrent employee is involved in a procurement, I think it is not strange that an application for exemption may be made to some extent. In order to put this system on track, for example, it may be considered to select an appropriate procurement and carry out the procedure for exemption on a trial basis.
  • Bidding is to take in the knowledge of various people and compile it into a good proposal. It does not mean that the specifications issued by the bureaucracy will be accepted as they are, but the specifications (issued by the bureaucracy) are just writing the content necessary to achieve a certain purpose, and it will be useless unless the proposal from the company is included in it and it becomes a sound form. It is not good enough to say that it was okay just because there was no such thing and it did not conflict with the rules. The point is, what should be done to prevent the killing of cows by cornering them? Not only should the secretariat be restrained, but active proposals should be made from various people, and after that, the bid should be made in a good form. Around this point, we should try something, and we should have a trial adventure.
  • What is being discussed now is quite true, and I feel that the significance of the existence of this committee will be questioned, so I would like to do something about it.
  • Regarding the exemption application, I think it is a difficult issue. There is no doubt that there will be trade-offs, so I think it is about where to draw the line, but it is also difficult to judge the extent of the harm.
  • Some people seem to be of the opinion that it is difficult to prove to the outside that procurement Information has not been leaked in applying for exemption, but it is very difficult to prove that it has not been leaked. In the first place, certification to that extent should not be required as a rule of operation.
  • There is more than one specialist, so I don't think there will be any bias if there are employees from multiple companies. In such a system, if we can show that there is no problem because we have received this kind of certification for the application for exemption, I think all of the employees can imagine it. It is difficult to prove that there is no such thing as a demon, so I think the situation will change if the people concerned are informed that it is sufficient to prove that there is a transaction to be covered and that the response was made according to the rules.
  • How much burden will be imposed on the company side in order for the application for exemption to be approved? If there is a growing sense of caution about the application, it may be necessary to understand this in an easy-to-understand manner, along with the actual situation.
  • From a slightly different perspective, this system, or rather, having bids made, is the first step to create a better one by skillfully summarizing various knowledge at home and abroad. Therefore, I think it is good for various people to communicate with each other, but this is a little bit of a stop it, stop there, stop here. It should not be done, if it is an illegal form, but it should be a form that nicely combines a place to put a brake and a place to say please do it. One thing I think is that a briefing session is held before bidding, and some days after the briefing session, there may be questions from those who attended. I think it is very important to see how many valuable questions and proposals are raised. If nothing is done, it is not very meaningful to do this. In light of the original purpose, if we do not have a good response from the public and private sectors as an indicator, we may end up making a Buddha and not putting a soul in it.
  • If I don't do anything, I feel like I will go there. As other members said, I think the Compliance Committee should think about changing the way it works a little. What do you think?
  • I agree with the current opinion, but overall, based on the results of this survey, I think the status of Digital Agency's efforts is worthy of evaluation. That is because at the beginning of Digital Agency's establishment, there were concerns that a large number of people with diverse backgrounds would come from outside and cause serious compliance problems such as information leakage. However, there have been no such serious cases in the past two years. This result is the result of everyone's efforts with a high level of awareness, so it is very gratifying. On the other hand, as we have discussed today, some Issue have come into sight regarding the bidding restriction system, and I understand that the current opinion is that it may be good to relax the system a little more (based on the situation where no problematic cases have occurred). Of course, I am a strict observer, so I may give a strict opinion, especially because I am afraid of the one hole of ants. However, first of all, I think it is good to have some specific proposals from the side of the employees who are familiar with the actual operations, such as if we were to do a little more, we would be able to do a better job, and then discuss them at this committee.
  • Originally, it was the first time since I started (the effort to restrict bidding), and I don't think I was thinking that it would not move by even 1 mm, so the current opinion is correct. It may take a little time, but I would like to have a little proposal and discuss it. I think it is meaningful to discuss it at a timing after two years have passed, but what do you think? (All members agreed with a nod)
  • Digitalization does not mean that everything will be digital. The system will be configured by shaking hands with human work. Therefore, what is important is that people who are going to contract for the system of the private sector will well understand whether the specifications made by the government can really cover various problems and make proposals. We will consider whether it is better for humans to do this instead of digital. If people do this, it is easy to make mistakes, so it is better to put a brake on it with digital. I think there is no point in holding an explanatory meeting unless such a proposal comes out. We are doing it to extract wisdom, but wisdom does not come out. In short, even if we don't leak it, we have to think about what we are doing it for. We have to make sure that the results we are looking for are coming out, and if we don't deal with this compliance issue, it will be like killing a cow. Keep that in mind. Digitalization does not mean that everything can be done digitally. What to do with human beings must be added together. I don't know if it is an addition or main part, but I would like you to think about it.
  • It is important to be able to understand that certain restrictions, or purposes and regulations, will be forgotten, so this is really bad from the perspective of common sense. In short, it is very important to make it clear that it is completely black, or that it is contrary to the public interest. After that, we relax ourselves by thinking about the possibility a little bit. If we start to ask for a pure white story, our actions will narrow down. If we decide that we should not do anything other than pure white, we should amplify it and add value, but we should not listen to it or watch it, and we make a voluntary regulation. In recent times, there may be more and more companies that do not want to do anything other than pure white, but I think we need to think about it based on this.
  • Basically, I think we have been discussing the same thing up until now. However, at present, is it a matter of reviewing the system and changing it in various ways, or is it a matter of sharing the awareness within the Digi-cho? I think the response will change depending on whether or not the message is conveyed that we are holding down the basics so that we can be done with peace of mind while we are becoming a mere scary existence and shrinking existence.
  • If you think it is noisy organization, I would like you to correct it. I think it is a committee that is not dedicated to compliance, or rather, does not intend to say such a thing, so it is necessary to explain that well.
  • It is not necessary to think of a specific improvement plan and decide on one, but it is also good to have various things on the table and discuss them, such as a plan to relax boldly. I don't think there will be anyone who will say (outrageous) about that plan during the discussion, so I would like you to give your opinions on that matter frankly and without hesitation. I will put a little burden on the secretariat, but I would like to ask for your cooperation.

Other
(The Secretariat will introduce the content of reference materials)

End