No hard evidence of misconduct: Probe proves inconclusive

MUNSU passes 10 resolutions in response to internal investigation

By Kenny Sharpe

MUNSU Beat

A MUN Students’ Union (MUNSU) investigative committee set up to evaluate anonymous allegations of abuse of union finance has concluded there is no hard evidence to either prove or disprove the allegations due to a lack of documentation. The union did, however, pass 10 resolutions to address the concerns raised. The anonymous letter, which surfaced on Nov. 4, alleged some members of the executive were abusing union credit cards, a seemingly endless Breezeway bar tab, and the MUNSU SafeDrive Van. Since the fall semester, the union has passed several motions, including implementing a zero tolerance bar tab policy, and has made an effort to better track credit card spending, all while aiming to increase financial transparency. At the last Board of Directors meeting, the committee presented the board with eleven recommendations: - The daily statements need to be re-printed as they are difficult to read. - There needs to be a clear division of the spillage category. - Both the executive director of finance and the finance and services committee should periodically review the daily statements from the Breezeway. - The log book is to stay in the MUNSU SafeDrive van and be checked by the SafeDrive Coordinator. - Find the gas card in the future. It should not be left in the SafeDrive Van. - The Finance and Services committee should rightfully monitor the credit card spending of executive. - All executive directors should be required to give more comprehensive explanations of purchases. - Under no circumstance should a credit card be used by someone for whom the card is not issued. - It should be the policy for MUNSU from now on not to respond to anonymous letters. - The board of directors should review the value of the executive retreat - A separate accounting firm shall perform union audits. In a vote of 16 in favor to eight against, the board accepted all but one of these recommendations, deciding to scrap the motion pertaining to the board and its response to anonymous letters. Chris Wass, arts students’ rep and chair of the investigative committee, spoke to the board about the committee’s findings.

Speaking about the bar tabs, Wass indicated that it was a “failure of the board” and that MUNSU should have been monitoring and controlling the bar tab issue sooner. “When we did look into [bar tabs], we could not prove if executives were using the tabs and we could not say that they weren’t,” said Wass, who called the record keeping at MUNSU “ambiguous.” Wass indicated the monitoring of credit card spending by executive was poor and that it again was a failure of the board. Important to note was the fact that Wass indicated that by in large the assigned credit cards were not abused. Addressing the SafeDrive issue, Wass reported that the current Director of External Affairs, Cameron Campbell, did in fact take the van to Corner Brook for a weekend, but had the approval of other Board members before he did so. Chris Bruce, MUNSU director-at-large and member of the finance and services committee found it important to note that through the committee’s collection of financial data, several issues were still outstanding. Bruce said that a “large lack of receipts to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars” still existed, and that in terms of raw data, expenses such as first-class flights, car repairs, meals, and nights out at Yuk Yuks were of “questionable taste.” Bruce indicated that while the receipts for Travis Collins, who is the executive director of finance and services, were in good standing, the standing of executive members Bradley Russell and Ryan Marshall looked “rather bad” with possibly “thousands in spending” without any record. Marshall is the current executive director of advocacy and Russell was the executive director of student life. Russell resigned during the Christmas break citing medical reasons, just weeks after the anonymous letter first appeared. Marshall has confirmed with the Muse that any purchase that he has made has been within MUNSU policy. Speaking about the amount of time and effort which has gone into this investigative progress, Amber Haighway, music students’ representative, asked her fellow constituents what could be done to move forward now that the board, and public, has been presented with the recommendations. Continuing, Haighway asked, “How do we move forward from this little ‘scandal’ that has made MUNSU look ridiculously bad?” Bruce highlighted that the work the board has done this year with respect to this investigation and said that completing the backlog of credit card statements, getting rid of bar tabs, and conducting a retroactive review were all “passing of good policy.” “The board has made a lot of fiscally responsible progress that has made [MUNSU] more efficient and less wasteful,” said Bruce. The 2010 MUNSU general election is scheduled for March16 and 17.

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