Finance Ministry inspections of financial institutions should be revised through such means as offering prior notification of when they will take place, a panel of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party said Friday.The party's Finance Division and the Investigation Commission for the Finance and Banking Systems issued a joint appeal for the restoration of trust in financial administration after the recent arrest of two ministry inspectors for allegedly receiving bribes from banks.The inspectors are suspected of being entertained in return for providing information on dates and locations of ministry inspections, which are in principle carried out without prior notice.The appeal also called for improving the quality of the inspections by encouraging personnel exchanges between ministry inspectors and similar officials from other countries, and utilizing experts from the private sector.The bribery scandal forced Hiroshi Mitsuzuka to abandon his post as finance minister and led to the resignation of Vice Finance Minister Takeshi Komura, who was formally replaced by Koji Tanami, head of the Cabinet Councilors' Office on Internal Affairs.
