China News Weekly recently reported under the title “‘Small Officials, Huge Corruption Principal’ Starves Elementary School Students” about a school principal in South China colluding with colleagues to control the school’s student meal supply chain and embezzling student meal fees, leading to students not getting enough to eat. It is said that the children wrote letters for help, “We are still in the developmental stage, often not full, sometimes we wake up hungry at night” and “Suggest changing the meals in the cafeteria, they are not delicious at all.”
After reading the entire article, I am very puzzled: In such a heinous case, the report of several thousand words not only concealed the place names and school names, but also stated “a junior high school in a county-level city in a certain town in South China”, and all the names were pseudonyms. The principal Lian Jinfeng, who participated in the corruption, was a pseudonym, the vice principal Huang Kaihua was a pseudonym, the cafeteria director Zhang Yunbao was a pseudonym, and the education bureau director who was interviewed was also a pseudonym. There was not a single real name in the entire article.
It is said that the local Discipline Inspection and Supervision Commission verified that Lian Jinfeng’s corruption related to the “campus meal” issue began in March 2013 and was exposed in June 2024, with a crime period of up to 11 years.
These beasts have been snatching food from the children’s mouths for 11 consecutive years, and they are still protected by the local government and propaganda agencies. What kind of world is this?
Last year, the National Audit Office found that 159 local governments snatched food from children’s mouths in order to repay government debts or distribute welfare. On June 25, 2024, the Auditor General of the National Audit Office, Hou Kai, disclosed in the 14th National People’s Congress Standing Committee’s 10th meeting the “State Council’s Audit Report on the Implementation of the Central Budget and Other Fiscal Revenue and Expenditure in 2023” that when auditing the special funds for the rural compulsory education student nutrition improvement plan, it focused on auditing 23.137 billion yuan in subsidies from 13 provinces and 159 counties from 2021 to August 2023, and found some problems. The first problem found was that the management and use of some subsidy funds were relatively chaotic, and some were directly diverted. 66 counties used 1.951 billion yuan to repay government debts and pay for basic “three guarantees” and other expenditures.
In the past, we always thought that some illegal enterprises were playing tricks on the children’s food issues for the purpose of obtaining improper benefits. We didn’t expect that now, in this issue related to children’s physical health and normal eating, it was actually the local government that was playing tricks. 66 counties diverted nearly 2 billion yuan of children’s nutritional meal subsidies to repay debts, with an average of about 29 million yuan per county.
Not only that, but the nutritional meal subsidy funds of some counties were also squeezed in disguise. The National Audit Office found that 41 counties and 1533 schools, etc., indirectly withheld and squeezed 270 million yuan by lowering the meal supply standards and fabricating procurement businesses. 5 county education departments colluded with the winning suppliers to obtain 42.1602 million yuan through supplier dividends, donations, etc., for the purpose of distributing welfare, etc. The audit also found that some catering units were operating illegally. 147 suppliers and some school cafeterias and other catering units were operating illegally, cutting corners, and providing substandard meals.
Diverting or embezzling children’s nutritional meal subsidies for debt repayment and welfare distribution is a crime.
Today’s children are completely different from us when we were young. When we were young, school was easy, there wasn’t so much homework, so many tutoring classes, and so much internal competition. Today’s children use suitcases as school bags, often write homework late into the night, and go to various tutoring classes on weekends. Their physical and mental consumption is far greater than ours when we were young. In this case, whether they can eat enough and eat well is extremely related to the growth and development of today’s children.
We always thought that with the country’s development to today, the children’s eating problems should be no problem. However, we never expected that the evil hands of some local governments had long reached into the schools and into the children’s bowls. Some local officials, for their own greed and for their own official positions, have borrowed heavily to launch some projects that can easily distinguish whether they are performance projects or real livelihood projects, and have incurred huge government debts. In order to fill the holes and clean up the mess, they actually diverted the special subsidies for children’s nutritional meals to repay debts.
The situation of snatching food from the children’s mouths is not only the use for debt repayment and welfare distribution found by the National Audit Office, but also various places have extended their evil hands under various names: From September to October 2023, the Hunan Provincial Audit Office found in its audit that some schools had squeezed and diverted nutrition improvement plan funds for the construction of canteens, the purchase of equipment, or the wages of temporary personnel.
However, the “Implementation Measures for the Rural Compulsory Education Student Nutrition Improvement Plan” issued by the Ministry of Education clearly requires that “all levels of units must establish special accounts for nutrition meal subsidy funds to ensure that they are fully used to subsidize student meals, and strictly prohibit the deduction, withholding, squeezing, and diversion of nutrition meal subsidy funds”. Now, so many local governments have deducted, diverted, and squeezed the special subsidy funds for nutritional meals. What crime should they be charged with?
Like the propaganda agencies, the National Audit Office’s report at that time did not announce which specific counties had diverted and squeezed the children’s meal money, which is puzzling.
This kind of thing that is condemned by both humans and gods should be exposed by name. Without naming names, it is difficult for us to know which children’s meal money was diverted by these beasts, and it is difficult for parents to provide targeted supplementary meals and nutrition for their children, and it is difficult for ordinary people to participate in supervision. The legal and disciplinary pressure and moral pressure on the officials who violate the law and discipline and the beasts in the schools who deduct the children’s meal fees will be minimal.
I predicted long ago that if these beasts do bad things without receiving strong and effective moral condemnation and legal sanctions, they will definitely continue to extend their evil hands to the children in the future.
Discover more from 自由档案馆
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.