clarifies the non-profit principle, which can effectively control "canteen corruption" in primary and secondary schools and ensure the legitimate rights and interests of students.
Data map: Staff in the canteen of the primary school in Huaying City, Sichuan Province distribute lunch to students. Photo / Xinhua News Agency
Text | Xiong Bingqi
The operation of canteens in primary and secondary schools, which has attracted great attention from the society, must be non-profit in the future.
Recently, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education issued the newly revised " Primary and Secondary School Financial System ", which requires that if the school independently operates the canteen to provide dining services for students, the financial activities shall be included in the unified management of the school's financial department, and can be managed in the school's existing canteen. The accounts are divided into separate accounts to truly reflect the income and expenditure status, and the accounts are disclosed regularly. If there is any balance, it should be transferred to the next fiscal year and continued to be used.
This means that no matter whether it is public or private, all canteens in primary and secondary schools cannot make a profit. Even if there is a surplus, it cannot be used for dividends or transferred to other uses. It can only be used for the continued operation of the canteen. This draws a red line for primary and secondary schools to operate canteens independently. Ensuring the non-profit principle of primary and secondary school canteens can effectively control "canteen corruption" in primary and secondary schools and prevent some school operators and managers from making profits by operating canteens and infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of students.
In recent years, repeated occurrences of "canteen corruption" in primary and secondary schools have aroused widespread public concern. As reported by the media, the former principal of a middle school in Xuchang, Henan was found to have taken advantage of his position to pocket 1.02 million yuan in student meal expenses in less than three years, and was suspected of bribery, corruption and misappropriation of public funds. , was recommended to be sentenced to five years in prison and fined 300,000 yuan. In the lunch issue of a primary school in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, the then director of the General Affairs Office embezzled as much as 1.31 million yuan in student food expenses in more than a year, which was equivalent to deducting 5 yuan from the 8.5 yuan lunch fee per student per day.
This time, the financial system has clarified the non-profit nature of primary and secondary school canteens, stipulating that all meal fees must be used for canteen operations. All operators have no shares and cannot distribute dividends, and operating balances cannot be used as "profit" income to issue bonuses and subsidies. wait. To put it simply, in addition to deducting the canteen operating costs, students’ meal expenses should be eaten by the students. The National Nutritious Lunch Plan even explicitly requires that costs such as the construction of canteens and canteen service staff wages be settled by local government departments.
The key for public schools to implement the requirement that canteens be non-profit is to disclose financial accounts and play the role of parent committee.
We must realize that for schools to independently operate canteens, even if they establish a system of principals and head teachers accompanying meals, it is difficult to prevent canteen operators from substandard goods and making profits by collecting kickbacks and other methods. Because there may be a community of interests behind this. Therefore, the parent committee should participate in the supervision of school cafeteria operations, requiring the cafeteria to maintain the quality and quantity of meals and publish revenue and expenditure accounts.
Data map: Senior students of Tieyi Middle School in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia eat in the cafeteria. Photo/Xinhua News Agency
For those private schools that hope to make money through logistics operations, implementing this non-profit requirement requires operators to change their school running philosophy.
"You cannot make money by collecting tuition fees, but mainly by providing logistical services." This is the way some private schools operate in recent years. The revised "System" further clarifies that schools in the compulsory education stage are not allowed to engage in business activities in accordance with relevant national regulations. This also requires that all compulsory education private schools must fully adhere to non-profit operations. For private high schools with non-compulsory education, even if the school is registered as a for-profit, its cafeteria must be operated as a non-profit.
Taking into account the different ways of providing dining services to students, the newly revised "System" provides financial guidance on the actual situation of schools using different methods to provide meals for students, such as independently operating canteens, entrusting canteens, catering or providing meals, etc. management requirements.
As the "System" clearly requires, if a school uses an entrusted method to operate a canteen to provide dining services to students, it should strengthen supervision and management, and shall not pass on the costs of construction, repair, etc. to the entrusted party; schools use meal catering or meal support to provide dining services to students. Yes, meal fees can be collected uniformly by the school and managed according to agency fees, etc.
This is conducive to the implementation of the non-profit requirements for primary and secondary school cafeterias. However, in the specific operation process of the canteen, it is still necessary to prevent the transfer of interests between relevant school personnel and the entrusted parties and catering parties. In recent years, many of the health and quality problems of nutritious lunch that have been exposed by the media occur in entrusted meals and catering. The reason is that relevant school personnel receive the benefits of entrusted meals and catering and neglect supervision.
This time the "System" stipulates that schools shall not pass on construction, repair and other costs to the entrusted party. This is a requirement at the school level to prevent "open" interest transactions, avoid "the wool comes out of the sheep", and the entrusted party passes on the construction and repair costs to the students, increases the meal fee standard, or reduces the service quality.
As for the possible "black-box operations" and "private transactions" between the relevant school personnel and the entrusted party, in addition to strictly implementing the financial system, it must also be curbed by strengthening supervision and strengthening information disclosure, especially the supervision of the parent committee. effect. Only in this way can we implement the requirements of this "System" and effectively run the canteens of primary and secondary schools. Written by
/ Editor by Xiong Bingqi (educational scholar)
/ Proofread by Liu Yunyun
/ Zhao Lin
