News Brief: More principals indicted on lunch bribe charges

Ten public elementary school and junior-high school principals were indicted yesterday by prosecutors in Banciao District (板橋), New Taipei City (新北市), on suspicion of taking bribes from school lunch suppliers, the Taipei Times reports today (full article here).

Banciao prosecutors last month indicted eight public elementary school principals in New Taipei City and have so far brought 18 principals before the courts.

Banciao prosecutors expanded the investigation yesterday by questioning another five principals in the city.
 

Prosecutors asked the Banciao District Court to sentence them to between 15 and 20 years in jail.

 

Schools typically hold bids for lunch suppliers once a semester. To gain an edge, prosecutors said some suppliers increased the price of their lunches by between NT$2 and NT$5 a serving, which went to bribes for the principals.
The bribes totaled between NT$200,000 and NT$300,000 a semester for some principals.
 

Prosecutors said they have summoned a total of 34 principals for questioning so far and that another three principals had been reported to prosecutors.

News Brief: School lunch kickbacks case expands -- Prosecutors

The scandal of elementary and junior high school principals in New Taipei City (新北市; formerly Taipei County) taking kickbacks in the provision of school lunches has exploded, the China Times reports today (full Chinese-language article here; presumably the Taipei Times will cover this story tomorrow). 

Yesterday, November 10, the Banciao District Prosecutors Office (板橋地檢署) again directed the search of 7 junior high and 13 elementary schools, and arraigned four principals and one food provider to appear in court. Investigations also discovered that some elementary school principals, after receiving cash from providing companies, also held positions evaluating committee members at other schools, for which, shamefully, they further took bribes. 

Prosecutors said this was not a case of “established practice” but was criminal behaviour, and principals involved must be brought to justice with all due haste.

                                                                 Text and photos © Jiyue Publications 2011

News Brief: School lunch suppliers, caterers substandard -- CPC

Many parents deliver hot lunches to the school gates

A random sample by the Consumer Protection Commission (消費者保護委員會) of 57 school lunch ingredient suppliers and caterers in six counties and cities around Taiwan found excessive levels of agrichemicals in ten cases, the National Education Radio (國立教育廣播電台) reported today (full Chinese-language article here). 

All fresh meat products were found to be up to standard, but four processed meat items had unacceptable levels of livestock agrochemicals. Similarly, six vegetable items tested positive for pesticide residues.

The CPC under the Executive Yuan asked the Ministry of Education to instruct schools to deal with the suppliers in accordance with their contracts, and asked the county- and city-level departments of health to investigate the sources of the meat products and deal with the manufacturers in accordance with the law.

No contraventions were found in Taitung County, whereas one to four below-standard ingredients were found in each of Taipei City, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung and Tainan.