33 officials in schools kickback scandal
By Claire Wang |
August 18, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THIRTY three high-ranking school officials in an east China city have been punished or held legally responsible for taking kickbacks of more than 4 million yuan (US$626,267) from food vendors and contractors.
This is said to be the biggest corruption scandal in local education in China.
The group includes 27 principals, four former principals, one deputy principal and the former director of the Education Bureau of Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province.
Thirteen of the group were held criminally liable, Legal Weekly reported yesterday.
Lin Zhen who supplied meals to a quarter of elementary and middle schools in Yongkang was taken for questioning last April.
Lin confessed to offering bribes to heads in order to become their food vendor or contractor on construction projects.
Lin paid 15 percent of the total meal cost as a kickback to Li Feiben, former principal of Yongfeng Elementary School. Lin also sent Li cash gifts for outsourcing school renovation projects to him, the report said.
Li received an eight-year jail sentence for accepting bribes. Besides taking kickbacks, Li also asked for 11,200 yuan from tourist agencies when organizing tours for students between December 2009 and March 2010.
Unspoken rule
Too much power granted to principals - ranging from personal appointments to the selection of food vendors and contractors - corrupted them, said the report. It has become an unspoken rule to bribe principals, it added.
"In Yongkang, if you want to become a food vendor, the only way is to bribe principals or use your connections," an unnamed insider told Legal Weekly.
"Since schools don't have many ways to increase income, the kickbacks from food vendors were collected in hidden reserves."
"Some of the money was handed out to teachers as allowances while the rest went into principals' personal purses," the insider added.
He Fumin, former director of the Education Bureau, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for receiving 380,000 yuan in bribes in the original judgment.
The Yongkang People's Procuratorate protested against the ruling, saying the penalty was too light considering the amount he took in bribes.
This is said to be the biggest corruption scandal in local education in China.
The group includes 27 principals, four former principals, one deputy principal and the former director of the Education Bureau of Yongkang City, Zhejiang Province.
Thirteen of the group were held criminally liable, Legal Weekly reported yesterday.
Lin Zhen who supplied meals to a quarter of elementary and middle schools in Yongkang was taken for questioning last April.
Lin confessed to offering bribes to heads in order to become their food vendor or contractor on construction projects.
Lin paid 15 percent of the total meal cost as a kickback to Li Feiben, former principal of Yongfeng Elementary School. Lin also sent Li cash gifts for outsourcing school renovation projects to him, the report said.
Li received an eight-year jail sentence for accepting bribes. Besides taking kickbacks, Li also asked for 11,200 yuan from tourist agencies when organizing tours for students between December 2009 and March 2010.
Unspoken rule
Too much power granted to principals - ranging from personal appointments to the selection of food vendors and contractors - corrupted them, said the report. It has become an unspoken rule to bribe principals, it added.
"In Yongkang, if you want to become a food vendor, the only way is to bribe principals or use your connections," an unnamed insider told Legal Weekly.
"Since schools don't have many ways to increase income, the kickbacks from food vendors were collected in hidden reserves."
"Some of the money was handed out to teachers as allowances while the rest went into principals' personal purses," the insider added.
He Fumin, former director of the Education Bureau, was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for receiving 380,000 yuan in bribes in the original judgment.
The Yongkang People's Procuratorate protested against the ruling, saying the penalty was too light considering the amount he took in bribes.
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