Chapter 398 True Punishment
Meeting Room No. 1 fell silent because of Shirakawa Kaede's warning, and Tanimura stood alone below, sweating profusely.
He felt that if he didn't give an explanation today, he might not be able to pass this test.
"Mr. Shirakawa, ... the chip tuning is more difficult than expected. We have not been able to fix some bugs."
After holding it in for a long time, Tanimura could only come up with this specious excuse.
"Let's not talk about the chip for now, what's going on with the screen?" Bai Chuanfeng remained unmoved and stared at him.
According to the plan, the new generation of handheld game consoles will adopt SIC's latest research results, the STN screen.
In theory, this type of screen will have qualitative improvements in all aspects compared to the previous TN screen.
You will have a brand new experience in clarity, response speed, contrast, viewing angle, color, etc.
But judging from how Baichuan Feng used it just now, he didn't see these advantages.
The flickering on the screen and the logo that appears and disappears from time to time are even worse than the most original TN screen.
Although the previous handheld game consoles were simple, they were at least smooth.
Now? It's almost the same as a brick.
The reason why it is called a new generation of handheld game console is that the first thing that is fed back to players is the improvement in the screen or picture.
But after more than a year, he hasn't even done a good job of presenting himself well. It would be strange if Baichuan Feng could be in a good mood.
Faced with his questioning, this time Tanimura simply lowered his head and remained silent.
"Heh~" Baichuan Feng sneered again, but he did not continue to question Tanimura. Instead, he turned his gaze to Yamamoto in the Finance Department.
"Mr. Yamamoto, can you please tell me how much money HAL has invested in the development of the next generation of handheld game consoles?"
Yamamoto, who was called, subconsciously stood up and bowed to Shirakawa Kaede, then hurriedly opened the documents in his hand and began to report.
“The project was initially approved in November 1981 and officially launched in March 1982.
The initial estimated development budget was 200 million yen, and after three additional investments, the total investment to date is 430 million yen.”
"430 million yen!" Shirakawa Feng squinted his eyes and glanced at everyone in the conference room. "It's more than twice the initial budget."
Everyone who was swept by his gaze lowered their heads silently, especially Tanimura, whose forehead was dripping with sweat.
Even Yamamoto, who was reporting on the financial situation, couldn't help but take out a handkerchief to wipe his forehead.
There are cases where R&D costs exceed the budget, but more than double is not common in this day and age.
But this was not what made Baichuan Feng angry the most. This time, he still set his sights on Yamamoto from the Finance Department.
"Mr. Yamamoto, the budget has exceeded by so much, why haven't I received any news?"
Yamamoto was struck by lightning when he was named. He glanced at Tanimura, whose mouth and eyes were pale, and then looked at Shirakawa Kaede, who had no expression on his face, and explained tremblingly.
"Shirakawa-san, the relevant financial situation has been reported to Tanimura-san."
Tanimura is the president of HAL, so the finance department is naturally under his jurisdiction.
With the growth of business in recent years, HAL's book funds have also become very considerable.
Although Tanimura does not have full power, he still has some ways to do it.
"What about the audit team? Why didn't they receive relevant reports beforehand?"
In order to prevent favoritism and fraud within the company, Shirakawa Holdings also has an external audit team.
In addition to the annual routine inventory, it has another responsibility.
That is, if the subsidiary has any large expenditure beyond the plan, it needs to proactively report it to the audit team for record.
The next step can only be taken after obtaining review and approval.
But now the audit team has no relevant records, and R&D funds have inexplicably more than doubled.
Facing Shirakawa Kaede's questioning, Yamamoto's body began to tremble visibly.
He opened his mouth and stammered, but after trembling for a long time, he couldn't say anything.
Baichuan Feng didn't have the patience to wait any longer, so he turned around and gave instructions to his assistant.
"Xiaotian, check the memos from the past two years to see if there are any similar reports submitted to me.
In addition, let the audit team come in and verify on-site where the R&D funds are used.”
This time, Shirakawa Feng did not come to HAL alone, he also brought the audit team with him, and they are waiting outside now.
In addition, this is to make them give up and to let everyone see more clearly.
Shirakawa Feng directly retrieved the report records for the past two years to see whether HAL had made any explanation for the funds.
Hearing that Shirakawa Kaede was going to check the accounts on the spot, Yamamoto, who was originally trembling, collapsed directly on the chair.
However, all this could not change Baichuan Feng's mind. Two minutes later, a group of staff in suits walked in.
At the same time, Oda also held a document record and placed it on the conference table.
In this way, Oda was responsible for tracing the memo and the audit team was responsible for checking the accounts.
Everyone had a clear division of labor, and for a while the conference room was filled with the rustling sound of flipping through documents.
As for the others, not to mention Tanimura and Yamamoto, even Iwata Satoshi and Yamashita Daiji felt their scalps tingling.
Several development team leaders felt their mouths dry.
Although they knew that all this had nothing to do with them, the uneasiness in their hearts still lingered.
Checking the accounts in person is almost like a public execution.
And looking at the expressions of Tanimura and Yamamoto, you can tell that things are definitely not that simple.
Because it was a targeted audit, the whole process took no more than an hour to get some results.
In fact, Baichuan Feng had already received a rough report in advance.
What we are doing now is just to make a more detailed confirmation based on the bill here at HAL.
"Mr. Shirakawa, please take a look." Oda handed the final compiled data respectfully to Shirakawa Feng.
After taking the report and taking a quick glance at it, Baichuan Feng's eyes became even colder.
"Tanimura-san, Sanben-san, there are some questions about the reimbursement expenses on the bill. Can you explain them to me?"
Bai Chuan Feng started reading the bill without waiting for their reaction.
"September 1983, Akihabara to Roppongi, taxi fare 3 million yen. Purpose of trip, business trip.
Also in September, the entertainment expenses for business trip to Roppongi were 12 million yen.
In December 1983, the office replaced the potted plants, costing 2 million yen. ..."
"Bang!" A dull sound echoed in the conference room, and everyone was startled.
I raised my eyes quietly and took a look, and saw Shirakawa Kaede staring at Tanimura Masahito angrily .
He slapped his hand on the table, pressing down on the bill he had just read halfway.
"Punishment, real punishment!" Baichuan Feng has never been as angry as today.
"The taxi fare for a distance of less than 9 kilometers was 3 million yen. The reception cost 12 million yen.
In the cold winter month of December, I went to replace 2 million worth of potted plants.
What’s even more amazing is that there was more than one such reimbursement.
However, the report to the audit team did not mention these reimbursements at all.
It was simply brushed aside as "research and development expenses".
Are you insulting my intelligence?!" The last sentence of Baichuan Feng's questioning made everyone's eardrums vibrate.
"Bang!" Yamamoto, who had just collapsed on the chair, fell to the ground because he didn't sit firmly.
As for the president, Tanimura also looked pale and shaky.
Looking at their ugly appearance, Baichuan Feng became even more angry.
You were so brave when filling out the reimbursement form, why are you so cowardly now?
"Everyone else go out first, Tanimura and Yamamoto stay." The light in Shirakawa Kaede's eyes flickered, and his voice was calm.
But the more this happened, the more frightened everyone became.
Those who had nothing to do with the matter were eager to leave Meeting Room 1 immediately.
It was the first time they saw Baichuan Feng get furious, and unsurprisingly it left a huge shadow in their hearts.
However, when leaving the meeting room, everyone looked at Tanimura and Yamamoto with hatred.
There is something wrong with the funds of hundreds of millions of yen. It's just too much greed.
How much is their monthly salary? The highest does not exceed 500,000 yen.
Compared with the bill just now, this amount of money is a drop in the bucket.
And after this incident, HAL's pension this year must have been greatly reduced.
As the big boss, Mr. Shirakawa will no longer have a good impression of HAL.
It is not known whether this incident will affect everyone's promotion and salary increase. It all concerns the vital interests of everyone.
It would be strange if they could be nice to the culprits, Tanimura and Yamamoto.
After everyone left the meeting room silently, Baichuan Feng focused his attention on the two of them again.
"Now that things have come to this, tell us everything. If there is anything else you are hiding, I don't mind having the Metropolitan Police Department come and communicate with you two."
"Plop!" As soon as Baichuan Feng finished speaking, Yamamoto knelt on the ground and crawled all the way in front of him.
"Shirakawa-san, this is none of my business. It's all Tanimura's fault. Yes! It's all his fault!"
While Yamamoto was crying and sobbing, he pointed his finger at Tanimura who was still standing there.
"It was Tanimura who asked me to do so. He's the president, so I have to listen to him, Shirakawa-san~"
Baichuan Feng glanced at the latter, and Tanimura looked as pale as death and remained silent, as if he had no intention of refutation at all.
"Except for the nearly 100 million yen in reimbursement expenses, are all other expenses in the account okay?"
Baichuan Feng's eyes became unfathomable, as if he was warning Yamamoto.
You only have one chance to answer, don't say I didn't give it to you.
Yamamoto swallowed hard, gritted his teeth, and decided to go for it.
"Of the 430 million yuan in R&D expenses, 100 million yuan was reimbursed in the accounts, and 100 million yuan was invested in actual R&D.
The rest..." Yamamoto paused, "the rest is in the stock market."
"The stock market?!" Baichuan Feng couldn't believe his ears.
I have invested so much money to let you develop a new generation of handheld game console.
What happened now is that you actually used my money to speculate in stocks?
"Ha~" Baichuan Feng sneered, "I didn't realize that you two are actually good at financial management."
"How's it going? Did you make money from stock trading?"
"Shirakawa-san~" Yamamoto knelt on the ground and looked at him pleadingly.
"We'll talk about your matter later. Now go out and explain all the account details to the audit team honestly.
Remember, if anything is missing, it won’t be me who will face it again.”
"Ha! Hai!" Yamamoto kowtowed and crawled out of the meeting room.
In the meeting room that had returned to silence again, Shirakawa Kaede looked at Tanimura with admiration.
"Tanimura, it's been three years since HAL was founded, right?"
