Kindergarten Withheld Children's Meal Fees
In early May 2011, the "Creative Art Kindergarten" in Zhuhai City was exposed by teachers for withholding children's meal fees due to unpaid wages. The former chef of the kindergarten also revealed that the children's daily meal budget was only 1 yuan, far from enough to satisfy their hunger. Teachers and parents collectively demanded an explanation from the kindergarten. On May 10, the former accountant Huang Meimei and student parents reported the matter to the police station.
As the police investigation deepened, the former principal of the kindergarten and actual investor, Ms. Mo, was arrested by local prosecutors on charges of embezzlement and fraud.
On the 17th day, the heartless principal of the Zhuhai kindergarten who withheld children's meal fees was tried at the Xiangzhou District Court in Zhuhai City, Guangdong Province. The prosecution filed charges of embezzlement and fraud against the former principal and actual owner, Ms. Mo. Defendant Ms. Mo is suspected of exaggerating meal expenses through false procurement documents, embezzling 900,000 yuan in children's meal fees, and defrauding 60,000 yuan in student insurance premiums.
Industry insiders stated that it was unprecedented domestically for a kindergarten principal to be prosecuted due to exposure of withholding children's meal fees.
■Charge One:
Embezzlement of 900,000 yuan in meal fees
The incident of Zhuhai Xiangzhou Creative Art Rongtai Chinese-English Kindergarten (referred to as "Creative Art Kindergarten") withholding children's meal fees drew nationwide attention.
On the 17th, the former principal of Creative Art Kindergarten, Ms. Mo, was tried at the Xiangzhou District Court in Zhuhai City. Local prosecutors legally filed charges of embezzlement and fraud against the former principal and actual investor, Ms. Mo.
Xiangzhou District People's Procuratorate accused: In November 2004, defendant Ms. Mo (female, 50 years old, Hong Kong resident) registered and established Zhongshan Creative Art Enterprise Management Consulting Service Co., Ltd. using Xu's identity information, with Ms. Mo being the actual investor. In April 2006, Ms. Mo registered and established Zhuhai Xiangzhou Creative Art Rongtai Chinese-English Kindergarten under the company's name and served as the principal. Between April 2007 and March 2011, Ms. Mo used her position managing the unit's finances to instruct financial personnel to inflate student meal expenses through false procurement receipts, embezzling a total of 900,000 yuan in student meal fees.
Huang Meimei, who once served as the accountant of this kindergarten, provided the actual expenditure account of the meal fees in November 2010, which showed that the real cost of buying vegetables that month was only 8040 yuan, 48826 yuan less than the false accounts. Based on this calculation, each child spent less than 1 yuan per day on average. Even adding gas fees, oil and rice money, and chef's salary, the actual monthly expenditure was much lower than the 210 yuan each child paid per month.
■Charge Two:
Fraudulently collected 60,000 yuan under the guise of purchasing insurance
After the incident was exposed, the former accountant of the kindergarten, Huang Meimei, and the students' parents reported the matter to the police station.
Upon further investigation by the police, it was found that defendant Ms. Mo knew that "accidental injury school responsibility insurance" for non-compulsory education stage students should not be charged to students but still collected 30 yuan in insurance fees per student under the guise of purchasing insurance, defrauding approximately 60,000 yuan in premiums. Of this amount, 4500 yuan was used to purchase "school responsibility insurance," while the remaining 55,500 yuan was taken for personal use.
■Defense:
Operating at a loss, no embezzlement occurred
In court, Ms. Mo defended herself, stating that the prosecution's charges were inconsistent with the facts. As the actual investor, she had the authority to manage the company's finances, so there was no question of embezzlement. She claimed to have invested over 4 million yuan in setting up kindergartens on the mainland to realize her educational ideals, and the kindergarten had been operating at a loss.
Regarding the prosecution's evidence that multiple former financial personnel and material suppliers confirmed they were instructed by Ms. Mo to issue fake receipts, Ms. Mo believed that someone wanted to force her out of the kindergarten and bribed these people to give false testimony. Regarding the excessive collection of insurance fees, Ms. Mo argued that the additional charges were all used for emergency assistance to the children.
■Warning:
Such problems are not isolated cases
Zhuhai Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee Deputy Secretary-General Bian Yufeng once said: "Such problems are not isolated cases. To let sunlight shine on this often overlooked area, several deep-seated issues need to be addressed: first, how to coordinate relevant departments to truly take responsibility for their regulatory duties and implement them effectively; second, how to establish mechanisms and legal frameworks that ensure moral and ethical standards flow through the veins of kindergarten founders, allowing them to correctly handle the relationship between profit and social benefits; third, how to increase government support for private kindergartens and coordinate relevant law enforcement departments to adopt effective mandatory management measures against violators and mismanagers."
■Written by: Chen Zhi Jia, Su Qian Wen