Ordinary citizens as well as monks were left to take care of the abandoned children.

The officials who asked to ‘borrow’ orphans from a monastery ahead of an inspection from provincial authorities have been punished, according to Sina English.

The officials were desperate to convince provincial authorities that they had been fulfilling an obligation to provide a government funded orphanage, but a video of them asking monks to let them ‘borrow’ some abandoned children was leaked online. The controversy this has caused has left higher-ups with no choice but to fire people.

A local welfare house, established in 1995, was found to have been used as a makeshift office of other civil affairs departments, leaving up to 115 orphans with nowhere to go.

Now some justice has been meted out.

The director general of the district civil affairs bureau which administrates the empty-shell welfare house was removed from office for “borrowing” orphans from the locality to muddle through the inspection from the superior. The office director of the civil affairs bureau was suspended from duty for further investigation.

It was an online whistleblower who brought the case to the public’s attention, and the evidence of the authenticity of his claims is overwhelming.

However, no report stated what would be done with the misused building. From its original charitable intention, the building has been used for everything from funeral and interment services, marriage registry and even workers’ dormitories.

Will a change of personnel really prevent something similar from happening again?