Vocational-school director accused of pilfering funds

The director of a Taipei vocational school has been abusing the funds of the school's parents' association, a Taipei City councilor alleged yesterday.

But the night school's manager and a member of its finance committee dismissed the charges, saying the allegations were politically motivated.

People First Party City Councilor Jeffery Sheu (許淵國) alleged yesterday that Tsai Wen-hsiung (蔡文雄), director of the municipal Sung-shan Vocational Industrial and Agriculture Senior High School (市立松山工農), had been misusing the parents' association's funds.

Sheu said that since Tsai became the school's director five years ago, he has spent the association's funds without its approval.

"My question here is simple: Does it make sense that the school director is empowered to use the money, amounting to NT$800,000 per year, as cash gifts to individuals and politicians?" Sheu said.

Yu Wei-chang (游維掌), the incumbent chairman of the parents' association, said he has served as a rubber stamp for Tsai.

"Although I am chairman of the association, I do not know how the fund is managed and don't have the final say," Yu said, armed with photocopies of fund requests signed only by Tsai that appeared to substantiate his argument.

Yu added that when he questioned Tsai about the situation, he was told by school authorities to "stay out of it."

But Tsai dismissed Yu's allegations yesterday.

"I've never used money without the approval of the association," he said. "The cash gifts for individuals and politicians account for only a small portion" of total expenses.

Chen Szu-te (陳四德), manager of the night school, came to Tsai's defense.

"One of the reasons that Yu made the incident public is that he wanted it to have a negative impact on Tsai's re-election bid for school director [today]," Chen said.

Chen's argument was backed by Wu Chien-hui (吳健輝), convener of the association's finance committee.

"Yu wanted to undermine director Tsai's re-election bid, because he wanted to exact vengeance against Tsai for refusing to try to talk the finance committee into letting him use NT$78,000 for personal purposes," Wu said, displaying documents submitted by Yu to the committee.

Yu was not acting alone, Wu added.

"Since director Tsai took up the post five years ago, he has been pushing for a number of reforms and his aggressive moves have upset many school officials. They, in return, want to see Tsai lose his re-election bid," Wu said.

Lien Chi-chuang (連其昌), a finance committee member, said that it seemed suspicious that Yu could not produce any itemized bills for the first two years of his three-year tenure as the chairman of the association.

"Not to mention that he did not allow the finance committee to be set up until last September, and that he violated a municipal bylaw by heading the association for three years in a row," he said.

Rules allow a maximum term of two years.