Carleton’s Board of Governors may begin to withhold funding from the school’s two student unions if they do not sign an agreement to release their audited financial statements to the board before Nov. 1.

“Unfortunately, the board is withholding fees because they think we should be be co-operating, but it’s bigger than that,” said Kimalee Phillip, president of the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA). “They want control over our businesses.”

If GSA and Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) do not come to an agreement with the board before the deadline, the board will be giving an allowance of money for November and December based on their own estimate of the funds that should be distributed for those two months.

According to Jason MacDonald, director of Carleton’s department of university communications, the university collects about $3 million from students on behalf of CUSA and GSA.

According to Meera Chander, CUSA vice-president (finance), forcing the student unions to sign the agreement violates pre-existing agreements they have with the board, including student health plans and the leasing of service centres in the Unicentre.

The concern with giving the board the financial audits, according to Chander, is that it gives the perception that CUSA and the GSA don’t have auditors properly dealing with money.

“We have many professionals, including Collins Barrow and HR accounting as well as three other financial co-ordinators, who have the proper resources to ensure money is being spent appropriately and according to budget,” Chander said.

Earlier in 2007, the auditor for the university collected financial statements and recommended the board collect audits from the student unions for independent assurance, MacDonald said.

“We don’t want to penalize groups, we just want to make sure fees go to student services,” MacDonald said.

In August 2010, the lawyers representing the unions sent the agreement back to the board unsigned and said they did not hear back from them for seven weeks.

Chander said CUSA was willing to provide letters saying the finances were all up to standards, but the board did not accept it.

The agreement also deals with leasing and other financial positions that the administration is asking to see audits on.

The board and President Roseanne Runte could not be reached for comment.