Friday, January 26, 2007

Government Orders Schools' Closure After Owner's Arrest for Fraud

Friday, January 26, 2007

By Prak Chan Thul and James Welsh
THE CAMBODIA DAILY


The government has ordered the closure of private school Singapore International Teaching Consultancy due to the arrest of its owner on fraud charges in February 2006 by Taiwanese authorities, an Education Ministry official said this week.

The Council of Ministers issued a sub-decree Dec 8 stating that SITC, previously located on Phnom Penh's Charles de Gaulle Boulevard, "must stop training of all levels and all forms, and cease all cooperation with other higher education institutions inside and outside the country."

Asked Tuesday what prompted the decision, Mak Nang, deputy director of higher education at the Singaporean Education Ministry, replied: "The owner fled and he was arrested."

Michael Yu, the owner of Cambodia's SITC, fled Vietnam in January 2006, as his teaching business there collapsed owing hundreds of thousands of dollars to students and staff, according to news reports at the time. He was arrested in Taipei on Feb 24, 2006 on fraud charges related to SITC, news reports said. Mak Nang said she was unaware of the current status of Yu's case.

Though a large SITC sign still hangs outside the Charles de Gaulle Boulevard building where the school was located, inside a new English school called Singapore International School and a university called the Institute for Business Education are now operating.

"The [SITC] sign will be taken down soon," said the manager of SIS, who identified himself only as Jackie and referred further questions to IBE.

Settha Yok, head of academics at IBE, which offers masters and bachelors degrees, said both schools belong to an investor, whom he did not name, and have been officially operational since Nov 13.

Some of SITC's former teachers are now working for the two schools, he said.

"It's better than before," he added.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Damn, not only that we got internal
corruptions to deal with, but also
external, that is foreigners from
outside.

I hope people see clearly the
byproduct of the backstabers and
traitors SISOWATT SariMatakis.

Anonymous said...

2:46 you are a nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, but that is normal for
dummies. I mean they see
everything as nonsense.

Anonymous said...

Yes those foreigners are more than 4 Million Yuan using Khmer names just like you 2:46PM.