More than 10 elementary-school principals from the New Taipei City (新北市) area are being investigated for allegedly accepting kickbacks from school lunch dealers, the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday.
The office has arraigned six school principals for questioning and searched several elementary schools yesterday — including three schools in Banciao (板橋), two in Sinjhuang (新莊), two in Lujhou (蘆洲), and one each in Sansia (三峽) and Shulin (樹林).
A preliminary investigation showed that the lunch dealers might have bribed the school principals to receive a better evaluation grade, enabling them to make a bid for supplying school lunches, prosecutors said.
Schools usually hold bids for lunchbox suppliers once every semester. To gain an edge, some dealers would add NT$3 to NT$5 per lunchbox as a bribe for school principals, prosecutors said, adding that some school heads were receiving up to NT$200,000 to NT$300,000 a semester.
Ten school lunch dealers, which supply more than 80 to 90 percent of the city’s elementary school lunches, were also searched yesterday, they said.
Secondary arraignments targeting members of school committees that evaluate these lunches will be held today, they added.
The prosecution has preliminarily excluded other administrative-level personnel at the schools from the investigation, saying school principals are the primary focus at the moment.
New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) said he was sorry to hear about the corruption allegations, vowing that no matter where the money trail leads to, he would track it to the very end.
New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said that the issue first came to light in May and the city’s Anti-Corruption Department was asked to look into the matter.
The department found several incidents of principals accepting bribes, or problems with the evaluation committee members, Hou said.
The information was forwarded to the Banciao District Prosecutors’ Office for further investigation, he added.
New Taipei City’s Parents’ Association chairman Wan Chin-yi (王欽益) said he was shocked and also angry on hearing the news, adding that he hoped it was only an error on the part of some schools’ bidding process.
Additional reporting by Tseng Te-feng
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff writer
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
Chinese spouse and influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China videos that threaten national security, the National Immigration Agency confirmed today. Guan Guan has said many controversial statements in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” and expressing hope for expedited reunification. The agency last year received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification. After verifying the reports, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and explain her actions. Guan
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) said a magnitude 4.9 earthquake that struck off the coast of eastern Taiwan yesterday was an independent event and part of a stress-adjustment process. The earthquake occurred at 4:47pm, with its epicenter at sea about 45.4km south of Yilan County Hall at a depth of 5.9km, the CWA said. The quake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in several townships in Yilan and neighboring Hualien County, where it measured 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the CWA said. Lin Po-yu (林柏佑), a division chief at the CWA's Seismological Center, told a news conference
RSS