Prosecutors yesterday released five board members of New Taipei City’s Chi Jen High School on bail in an investigation into allegations that they had pocketed school assets totaling NT$267 million (US$7.95 million).
Board director Sheng Tien-lin (盛天麟) and his brother Sheng Ping-lin (盛平麟) were bailed on NT$3 million each, while three other board members were released on bail of NT$2 million each, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said.
The five main suspects allegedly embezzled tuition fees paid for after-school classes and uniform fees.
It is alleged that from 2006 to 2014 the board members distributed the money among themselves and three other suspects who are based overseas, prosecutors said.
The suspects were also accused of contracting a company to oversee and pay for the building of a centralized kitchen on campus while telling school administrators that the board would use NT$6 million in school funds for the construction, only to pocket the money after the project was approved, prosecutors said.
Since 2013, the accused had been charging a student lunch provider kickbacks of NT$10 per lunchbox sold, prosecutors said, adding that the company complied out of fear of losing business from the school that had more than 1,000 students.
Prosecutors on Thursday raided 12 locations, including the suspects’ offices and homes, and confiscated ledgers and cash totaling more than NT$40 million for investigation.
The National Federation of Teachers’ Unions yesterday said the scandal had dealt a blow to the reputation of private schools and called on the Ministry of Education and affiliated agencies to improve their control over private schools.
Union president Chang Hsu-cheng (張旭政) said that the allegations against the board members of the high school was not an isolated case and embezzlement of school assets has been rampant among private institutes.
Private school board of directors often operate as “family businesses,” which has allowed them to avoid scrutiny and that although it is the ministry’s duty to supervise private schools, it had not made enough efforts to do so, Chang said.
He said that the union had been advocating for legislation that would mandate private schools to hire objective board members and supervisors from third-parties to safeguard school finances, but since certain legislators had persistently opposed the proposal, the effort had been unsuccessful.
He said that with the new legislative session having started yesterday, lawmakers should push through necessary amendments to ensure the normal operation of boards of directors at private institutes.
Even though the ministry is responsible for enforcing the Private School Act (私立學校法), the ministry’s K-12 Education Administration said that as Chi Jen’s administration had not founded other schools outside New Taipei City, it is the duty of the city’s Department of Education to oversee the school.
As of press time, the agency did not give comment on what measures it had taken in the past to manage boards of directors at private schools and what it plans to do to prevent a similar scandals.
The school authority said it would cooperate with investigations and that it would do its utmost to prevent the schools’ operations from being affected.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS