App may have sought to cloak corruption

IN ORDER TO participate in the bids to provide school uniforms, companies in 16 provinces and municipalities are reportedly required to mandatorily join a third-party app called YGZY. According to some local education officials this was intended to prevent corruption. However, YGZY takes 4 percent of the total value of the uniforms provided, which pushes the prices higher. Southern Metropolis Daily comments:

Several local education officials said they introduced YGZY in order to prevent any corruption in the purchasing of school uniforms. However, that excuse is rather pale because it is still the schools, not the parents or pupils, that decide which school uniforms to buy. School managers and education officials still have the opportunity of making illicit money in the process.

Worse than that, YGZY takes 4 percent of the price of each uniform as their "management fee", while the average profit for school uniform producers is only 8 percent. As a result, school uniform prices are pushed higher because of the monopoly, while corruption is not prevented.