One day in late May, a reporter from an evening paper called our school and said, "Your school reported its reconstruction costs to be about NT$1 billion after last year's earthquake, but the Public Construction Commission believes that your school inflated the figures ..."
I was stunned when I heard this. We had never reported NT$1 billion. I told the reporter, "Perhaps your figures are mistaken," but the reporter was adamant that he wasn't. I didn't know how to respond, but mentioned that the figure could be related to reconstruction fees for one of the school's dormitories. The dorm had been built within 50m of a faultline. Some experts said it could be repaired while others said it would have to be torn down and rebuilt. But I didn't dwell on the matter and soon forgot about it.
By the afternoon, however, more reporters began calling and one even asked for an interview. It was clear that the situation was more serious than I had thought and I began to look into it. I called up the director of the general affairs department and we went over the original report for reconstruction fees submitted to the Ministry of Education.
We then found an evening paper, and saw the headline on the third page: "False reporting of reconstruction fees found." The article went on to say that the Public Construction Commission had decided to cut NT$35.2 billion from the reconstruction budget and the commission would give information to investigating agencies within a week. Among the worst cases cited by the commission for false reporting involved private schools, including the Chungtai?Institute?of?Health?Sciences?and?Technology, which the article said had reported NT$1 billion was needed for reconstruction, but would only be receiving NT$100 million.
The 921 quake severely damaged two schools located near fault lines: the Tung-shan Junior High School
Our school submitted information to the Ministry of Education on Sept. 29, Oct. 28 and Nov. 9, including estimates of earthquake damage and reconstruction costs, listed in two separate columns.
Later, however, the ministry asked us to provide some extra information to them by e-mail. Both figures were put in one column in the e-mail, although we added an explanation. The figure included the cost of rebuilding a dormitory that would cost NT$169 million if it were torn down and rebuilt to its original specifications. In contrast, a renovation and reinforcement project would cost NT$39 million.
The school took into account the overall redesign of the school and decided to construct a 10-story classroom on the site of the damaged dormitory. The cost of a new building was estimated at NT$540 million, but we did not apply to the Ministry of Education for the funds, planning instead to raise the money ourselves. We stated -- and highlighted -- this in the information we sent to the ministry, attaching a detailed explanation.
Although we had resolved to raise funds for construction ourselves, we still hoped that the ministry would offer a partial subsidy. We made oral representations to ministry officials about this. In our application, we simply listed the damage without calculating total expected expenditure.
To our surprise, the Public Construction Commission calculated what they thought the costs would be and concluded that we had applied for over NT$1 billion in reconstruction costs. The commission then granted us NT$120 million, having taken the NT$1 billion to be an inflated figure.
In fact, without familiarizing themselves with our report to the ministry and hearing the explanations for it, the commission has caused public misunderstanding of the school by divulging its version of events. This is extremely frustrating for us.
Education is an endeavor to be undertaken with a conscience, integrity and truthfulness. We never imagined that misinformation issued by the Public Construction Commission would cause irreparable damage to the school's reputation. The school staff have united to solve numerous problems associated with reconstruction in the wake of the 921 quake. The general affairs office has devoted itself to reconstruction work. But, the damage to our reputation caused by the commission's statement is like the physical damage wrought by the 921 quake all over again.
Huang Cheng-wen is the president of the Chungtai?Institute?of?Health?Sciences.?
Translated by Jonathan Lassen.
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