The Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) announced in a statement yesterday that it has busted an education institution for defrauding subsidies of the Education and Youth Development Bureau’s (DSEDJ) Continuing Education Development Plan.
According to the statement, CCAC received a referral from the Commission of Audit (CA), suspecting irregularities in a subsidised course offered by an educational institution. A CCAC investigation then revealed that the person in charge of the educational institution, along with 13 residents, was suspected of defrauding funding from the “Continuing Education Development Plan”, the statement said.
Upon further investigation, according to the statement, the CCAC discovered that since September 2023, the educational institution had been successively running multiple courses subsidised under the 2023–2026 “Continuing Education Development Plan”.
The person in charge of the institution used inducements such as supermarket vouchers to entice relatives, friends, and other residents to enrol in various courses, thereby causing the DSEDJ to disburse course subsidies, the statement said, adding that during the investigation, some suspects admitted to the CCAC that they had only enrolled in the courses in order to obtain supermarket vouchers and did not actually know the content of the courses they had signed up for, while other suspects admitted that they had never intended to attend the classes.
According to the statement, all 14 suspects have meanwhile been transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP), each facing a fraud charge.
Meanwhile, the Education and Youth Development Bureau announced in a follow-up statement that it is concerned about the case, which led the bureau to introduce further measures for its 2026-2029 “Continuing Education Development Plan”.
According to the statement, for learners with poor attendance rates, a “pay first, claim later” system will be adopted: only those with an attendance rate of 70 percent or above may apply for the reimbursement of subsidies. The measures aim to safeguard and monitor learners’ attendance, the statement said.
This image downloaded from the Commission Against Corruption (CCAC) website yesterday shows its official logo.
