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NTT executives to have pay cut

Jun 08 (NHK) - Japan's telecom giant NTT has announced that its executives, including the president, will have their pay cut due to wining and dining scandals involving the communications ministry.

NTT made the announcement on Monday after its panel consisting of external experts released a report on their investigation about the scandals.

The report said the costs of 29 dinners between senior ministry officials and NTT executives during the five-year period through this March were not equally split.

The report accused the NTT executives of improper conduct leading to the violation of the pubic servants' code of ethics. It said they should be held responsible.

But the panel concluded that the entertainment events did not sway the ministry's decision on NTT's full ownership of NTT Docomo or reductions in mobile phone subscription fees.

NTT decided that President Sawada Jun and 3 other executives will take pay cuts, and 12 other employees will be reprimanded.

As preventive measures, the company says it will in principle put a ban on dining with the ministry's top officials.

NTT says the company will never let this happen again and is committed to a departure from its usual way of doing business while adopting business practices more suitable to current times.

Source: ANNnewsCH

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