Kindergarten slots bribery case grows

Three more parents and a businessman have been charged by the Independent Commission Against Corruption with offering bribes totaling HK$340,000 to a former administrator of an English Schools Foundation international kindergarten.

The former administrator, Fatima Rumjahn, and 10 parents were charged in June last year with accepting and offering more than HK$900,000 in bribes so their children could be admitted to K1 classes.

The ESF's website says children joining an ESF K1 class from August 2020 will be guaranteed a place at an ESF primary school as well as a secondary school.

The ICAC said yesterday that the four new suspects - parents Michelle Wong Mei-suet, 37; Mak Wai-ki, 41; and Zhu Shuangye, 33; and merchant Siu Yu-pong, 45 - were each charged with one count of conspiracy for an agent to accept an advantage for offering bribes to Rumjahn, who was the ESF International Kindergarten (Wu Kai Sha) administrator at the time.

They were released on ICAC bail and will appear at Shatin Magistrates' Courts today.

The prosecution will apply to transfer the case to the District Court for pleas, the watchdog added.

The ESF kindergarten in Ma On Shan accepts admission applications for its K1 classes each September and they were handled by Rumjahn at the time.

The offenses involved four K1 admission applications to the kindergarten for school years 2019/20 and 2020/21 and took place between September 2018 and March 2021, the ICAC said.

The three parents each allegedly offered a bribe of HK$20,000 or HK$100,000, totaling $140,000, to Rumjahn so that their children could obtain a K1 place at the ESF kindergarten.

The merchant Siu was accused of offering a bribe of HK$200,000 to Rumjahn so that the daughter of his business partner could secure a K1 place.

"The ICAC reminds parents that they should strictly follow the established procedures when making school admission applications for their children and never offer bribes in exchange for school placements," it said. "If parents are asked to pay bribes, they should refuse immediately and report to the ICAC. Meanwhile, kindergartens could refer to the Corruption Prevention Toolkit on Kindergartens' Operations published by the ICAC for preventive measures."

Rumjahn and 10 other parents had already been charged by the ICAC with 14 counts of bribery in another case in June last year, the watchdog said.

Rumjahn, 52, faces 13 charges, including eight involving conspiracy to accept an advantage, four as an agent accepting an advantage and one as an agent soliciting an advantage.

"Rumjahn allegedly solicited and accepted bribes totaling over HK$900,000 from a number of parents for assisting their children's admission to K1 class of WKSK of the three school years between 2019/20 and 2021/22," the ICAC said.

The 10 parents, aged 34 to 44 and coming from eight families, allegedly gave between HK$20,000 and HK$100,000 in bribes for 13 children to be admitted.

The case was adjourned to July 4 for mention at the District Court, the watchdog said, adding that ESF has rendered full assistance to it during the investigation.

wallis.wang@singtaonewscorp.com