A world of hurt for teacher who accused principal of abusing lunch scheme

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Pupils at a school on the outskirts of Chongqing municipality eat lunch. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:55am, 13 Aug 2013Updated: 4:36pm, 13 Aug 2013

A Guizhou teacher said he had been harassed and threatened after confronting a school principal with accusations of abusing a lunch subsidy programme, a case that has caught the attention of provincial Vice-Governor Chen Mingming.

Meng Guangfa, 53, has accused principal Chen Lin of embezzling money from the government programme that feeds 30 million students from impoverished rural families. Meng said he was attacked after confronting Chen and has not fully recovered from his injuries.

Frustrated but unwilling to give up, Meng, who works at Dafang county’s Chayuan elementary school in southwestern China, published his allegations against Chen online at the weekend.

Meng accused him of producing fake receipts that show the school had purchased vegetables and meat at a higher-than-regular price, and then embezzling the difference after getting reimbursed. He also accused Chen of pocketing meal money paid by 29 preschoolers who dine at the school; he, instead, fed the preschoolers with state money intended only for the 187 first-to-sixth graders, Meng said.

Meng also posted a medical diagnosis, dated June 9, that says he had suffered from a brain concussion. Meng said Chen had attacked him in front of other teachers after he confronted the principal about overly-expensive potatoes Chen had purchased.