The CCAC received a report from the Commission of Audit suspecting that there were untrue records regarding the subsidised courses held by a local education institution. Following an investigation, the CCAC considered that there were strong indications that the person-in-charge of the education institution and 13 Macao residents defrauded subsidies under the “Continuing Education Development Plan”.

Upon investigation, the CCAC found that the education institution successively launched multiple courses subsidised by the 2023-2026 “Continuing Education Development Plan” starting from September 2023. The person-in-charge of the institution used supermarket coupons, among other advantages, as incentives to lure his relatives and friends and other residents to enrol in different courses with the subsidies issued by the Education and Youth Development Bureau through their individual educational accounts under the “Continuing Education Development Plan”. During investigation, some of them admitted to the CCAC that they cooperated with the institution to enrol in the courses solely for the purpose of obtaining supermarket coupons, but in fact knew nothing about the enrolled courses. Some of them stated that they never planned to attend the courses.

The person-in-charge of the education institution and 13 Macao residents allegedly committed fraud under the Penal Code. The case has been referred to the Public Prosecutions Office for follow-up. The CCAC would like to reiterate that residents shall abide by the law when using any kind of government subsidy and the competent departments should also proactively intensify supervision so that every cent of the public fund will be used effectively in a targeted manner.